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BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 ENCYCLOPEDIA 
 
 Connecticut and Rhode Island 
 
 The Nineteenth Century. 
 
 New York : 
 METROPOLITAN PUBLISHING AND ENGRAVING CO. 
 
Copyright, 1879, 
 H. CLAY WILLIAMS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Both History and Biography are valuable adjuncts in the culture of the race. 
 Each has its province, which, if not absolutely distinct, is still outlined with suffi- 
 cient precision for practical purposes. History deals with the more general facts; 
 is large in outline, stretches over great space and long time, records the actions of 
 great masses, as states and nations, or the dealings of nation with nation. If it 
 busies itself with individuals, it is only or chiefly in their relations to larger numbers, 
 to communities or commonwealths. It is continuous, unbroken, — or if divided into 
 parts, then only for convenience, to abridge the whole into proportions commensurate 
 to the time to be devoted to it, or to expand the account of single peoples by 
 a minuter detail of their corporate actions. History is thus comprehensive, general, 
 national. It deals less with individual character than with universal laws and with 
 actions peculiar to men in their united capacity. But the province of Biography 
 is much humbler, much less comprehensive, yet scarcely less important. It records 
 individual actions, not alone in their relations to the Commonwealth, but in their 
 relations to other individuals. In its more extended and complete form it may 
 record, in extenso, the dealings of man with man, or of a man with a commonwealth. 
 But the point of view is entirely different in Biography from that of History. In 
 the latter the Individual is ianimportant, except in his influence on the state or the 
 nation. His personal purity and greatness have no existence for history, apart from 
 their bearing upon public affairs. But in Biography the Individual is all-important. 
 The facts of his life are the objects of our study, and secondarily, the motives that 
 underlie them. But Encyclopasdic Biography deals only with the actions of men, 
 the facts of their lives, and leaves all criticism of motives to the reader. It thus 
 vouches for the character of no one, but puts the facts before the world and leaves 
 the world to mature its own judgment therefrom. It is itself a subordinate depart- 
 ment of history, but a history of an individual in contrast with the history of masses. 
 In Histoiy proper we watch the drift of events, the general current of affairs. In 
 Biography proper we note the events of the individual life, which may or may not 
 be concerned notably in producing that general current. Or, to modify the illus- 
 tration somewhat, in History we trace the course of the main river in its windings, 
 while in Biography we pursue to their sources some of the thousands of rills that 
 contribute to swell the mighty current. 
 
 This work, then, lays no claim to historic merit, except the history of Individuals. 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 The annals of the Commonwealths of Connecticut and Rhode Island have been 
 often and well written, and little or nothing remains to be added thereto. But 
 the Biography of their noble and worthy sons is all unwritten, except in rare instances. 
 No States in the Union have been more fertile in deserving men than these two. 
 To bring the main facts in the lives of some of these into public view is the real 
 object of this volume. We say some, for we do not propose to assert that all 
 the deserving merit of two States is concentrated in this book. Many of the persons 
 here mentioned have lived in public stations but others have lived away from the 
 public eye, in private worth alone. The actions, the lives of both classes are fruitful 
 subjects of study, as a sort of preparation for the larger subject of the general 
 history of their States. But we enter into no vexed questions of political or relig- 
 ious influences, leaving the facts simply to speak for themselves. These facts have 
 been gathered from the most reliable sources, and it is confidently asserted that the 
 record here presented is in every sense trustworthy. It is believed that such a 
 record will be of incalculable benefit, not only to the living, but to yet others who 
 are to come after, and a part of whose culture will be the study of the history 
 of these very times in which these men, of whom we have written the Biographies, 
 play no mean part. Will it be indulging a hope utterly vain, if we venture to 
 foresee that these Biographies may form one of the most acceptable sources from 
 which the future historian of Connecticut and Rhode Island may draw his material, 
 when these, our times, shall have passed into the domain of history .? To so hope 
 is only to anticipate what the past has already demonstrated to be the almost 
 uniform rule. In that justified confidence, then, of present and prospective value, 
 we commit to its fate this volume, freighted, as it is, with the outline of so many 
 valuable and commendable lives. We trust in the verdict the two Commonwealths 
 will pronounce on their beloved sons. 
 
 New York, January 12, 1881. 
 
"7 
 
 ' Ai- c^?.-L-':-^ o^f^S' ^.' r /7-^. ,. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 
 
 Connecticut iAnd Rhode Island, 
 
 •OOLSEY, THEODORE DWIGHT, D.D., LL.D, ex-President of Yale 
 College, New Haven. Born in New York, October 31st, 1801. The first 
 American ancestor of his line was George Woolsey, who settled among 
 the Dutch, in what is now the State of New York, during the early 
 part of the seventeenth century. The Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, of Southold, Long 
 Island, grandson of the original immigrant, graduated at Yale College in 1709, and 
 spent the last twenty years of his life at Dossoris, now Glen Cove, on the same 
 island, in the enjoyment of a considerable estate, which came to him through his 
 wife. His grandson, William Walton Woolsey, born at Dossoris in 1 766, became a 
 merchant in New York, and was long an important member of the Chamber of 
 Commerce, Treasurer of the American Bible Society, and in connection with various 
 other public institutions. He married Elizabeth, sister of President Dwight, of Yale 
 College, who had previously married his sister. By her he had seven children, all 
 of whom attained maturity and became heads of families. The sixth of these was 
 Theodore Dwight Woolsey, who graduated at Yale College in 1820. 
 
 Soon after his graduation young Woolsey went to Philadelphia and read law 
 
 but with no wish or intention to prepare himself for the practice of the legal 
 
 profession — in the office of Charles Chauncey, Esq., a near relative of his father 
 by marriage. The two following years were spent at Princeton in the study of 
 theology, to which he had devoted himself In 1823-25 he served as tutor in 
 Yale College, having received appointment to that office some months before leaving 
 Princeton. He then resumed the study of theology, and was licensed to preach 
 in 1825. After further study at home he went to Europe, in May, 1827, and was 
 absent a little more than three years, residing, for purposes of study, in France and 
 Germany for about two years, and spending the remainder of the time chiefly in 
 England and Italy. Returning home in July, 1830, he was elected, in the course 
 
6 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 of 1 83 1, to the professorship of Greek in his Alma Mater, and held that office 
 for the next fifteen years. During the earlier portion of his incumbency he published 
 editions of the Alcestis of Euripides, Camb., 1833, ismo; the Antigone of Sophocles, 
 1835, i2mo; the Prometheus of ^Eschylus, 1837, i2mo; the Electra of Sophocles, 
 1837, i2rao; and the Gorgias of Plato, chiefly according to Stallbaum's Text, 1842, 
 i2mo — which, taken together, constitute a more considerable contribution to Greek 
 learning than had been made by any earlier Greek scholar in the United States. 
 The able and critical C. C. Felton, reviewing these productions in the North 
 American, said : " Professor Woolsey has now completed his proposed course of 
 Greek Tragedies. He has given specimens from among the best works of the three 
 masters in an agreeable form, and accompanied by a body of notes which deserve 
 all praise." A. P. Peabody, in the same periodical, wrote : " We have been astonished 
 to find how easily they [Nos. i, 2, 3, and 4] have initiated the veriest novices 
 in Greek into the intricacies of the ancient drama." 
 
 In 1842 Professor Woolsey was one of a committee that established the New 
 Englander, the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon being the principal founder and contributor. 
 President Woolsey's papers, we understand, number over sixty. Among these, four 
 extensive articles on the Revival of Learning in the Middle Ages, several on Divorce, 
 especially in the United States, and three on the Treaty of Washington, together 
 with an address on the Life and Services of President Day, have been the most 
 noticeable. Those on Divorce were afterward enlarged and published in a separate 
 work, entitled, Essays on Divorce and Divorce Legislation, with Special Reference 
 to the United States (New York, 1869; T2mo, pp. 308). On such a topic as this 
 opinions are widely divergent. The Christian public, however, gave them close 
 attention, in view of " the exactness and thoroughness with which they discussed 
 the legal eflfects of this great question, as well as from the sound discrimination 
 displayed in the examination of its social aspects." 
 
 In 1845 the health of his wife required Professor Woolsey to be absent from 
 his post for a considerable portion of the year, during which he visited England, 
 France, and Italy, and had the great satisfaction of going to Athens, and of 
 travelling into the Peloponnesus and Boeotia. Before his return President Day had 
 determined to resign the office which he had filled with most eminent success and 
 acceptance ; and on finding that it was the earnest and general wish of the Trustees, 
 the Faculty, and the public that he should be the successor of that gentleman. 
 Professor Woolsey, after some weeks of hesitation, consented to occupy his place 
 which he did for the next quarter of a century. His next volume consisted of 
 Discourses and Addresses at the Ordination of Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, LL.D 
 and his Inauguration as President of Yale College, October 2ist, 1846 (New 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 7 
 
 Haven, 1846; 8vo, pp. 100). In his Inauguration Discourse he expatiated upon the 
 value of a classical education. The preacher was an exemplification of his own 
 theory, and as such had been honored by the diploma of LL.D. from the Wesleyan 
 University in the preceding year. A Historical Discourse pronounced before the 
 graduates of Yale College, one hundred and fifty years after the foundation of that 
 institution, was his next publication, and was issued in 1850. Had it been expanded 
 into one or even two volumes, it would doubtless have given greater satisfaction. 
 
 Being, by his election to the President's chair, divorced from the teaching of 
 Greek, Dr. Woolsey gave instructions by text-book and lectures in History, Political 
 Economy, and International Law. The latter subject, to which he had not been 
 wholly a stranger, received from him a good deal of attention, and after some four- 
 teen years of study and instruction he published, in i860, his Introduction to the Study 
 of International Law, Designed as an Aid in Teaching and in Historical Studies. 
 Revised and enlarged editions have since been published — five in all — each containing 
 improvements on the imperfect first one. Some of the highest living authorities 
 have commended this work in the warmest terms. " It is not only excellent in 
 itself," said the North American Review, " but it meets a want long felt. Till 
 now there has not been a fit text-book on International Law for our college classes. 
 For this use President Woolsey's work is especially adapted." It is now used 
 extensively in the academical and collegiate institutions of the United States, and is 
 also a text-book in the English universities. It has been republished twice in 
 England, has been translated into Chinese, under the superintendence of Dr. W. A. 
 P. Martin, President of the Imperial Tungwai College, and also into Japanese. 
 
 In 1 87 1, at the ripe age of seventy years, Dr. Woolsey resigned the presidency of 
 the university over whose fortunes he had presided so long, and has since mani- 
 fested the deepest interest in its welfare as a member of the Board of Trustees, or 
 Fellows, as the charter of the college calls them, down to the present time. In 
 the same year appeared in New York a volume of sermons from his pen, entitled. 
 The Religion of the Past and the Future ; also two sermons, published in New 
 Haven, on Serving our Generation, and God's Guidance in Youth, After the death 
 of Prof. Francis Lieber, in 1872, President Woolsey re-edited, with notes, his work on 
 Civil Liberty and Self-Government (Philadelphia, 8vo, 1874); also his Manual of 
 Political Ethics (2 vols. 8vo, 1874.) In 1878 Dr. Woolsey also published a work 
 in two large volumes, entitled, Political Science; or, the State Theoretically and 
 Practically Considered, which contains the results of the researches and reflections 
 of many years. He has also published sundry single sermons, has been, or is, a 
 contributor to the Bibliotheca Sacra, Biblical Repository, Journal of the American 
 Oriental Society, College Courant (New Haven), Independent, etc, etc., and has also 
 
8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 translated for Dr. Andrews' Latin-English Lexicon, founded on the larger Latin- 
 German Lexicon of Dr. William Freund (New York, 1851). His eulogy on the 
 late President C. C. Felton, in the Smithsonian Report, 1861, and his contributions 
 to the Boston Lectures for 1870, entitled, Christianity and Scepticism, all deserve 
 mention in the record of a busy and beneficent life. He has now in press a 
 small book on Communism and Socialism — theories which are shaking the foundations 
 of European empires, and which make themselves felt even in our democratic 
 republic — the principal matter of which was first published in the Independent, an 
 influential New York weekly newspaper. 
 
 Ex-President Woolsey is now in his seventy-ninth year, and devotes a consider- 
 able part of his time to the revision of the New Testament, he being a member 
 and the chairman of the American company engaged in that work in concert with 
 the British revisers. " Through desire, a man having separated himself intermeddleth 
 with all knowledge," is a generalization whose justice this truly representative 
 American scholar most thoroughly vindicates. For several years he was one of 
 the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and for twenty-five years, until he had 
 reached the age of seventy, one of the most prominent college presidents in the 
 land. Dr. Noah Porter, his chosen successor, forcibly expresses the estimate of Dr. 
 Woolsey, by all who know him best, in the words : " As a scholar. President Wool- 
 sey is distinguished for the exactness of his knowledge, the extent of his erudition, 
 and the breadth and sagacity of his judgment ; as a teacher, for the glow of his 
 imaginative and ethical spirit, and for the vigor of his impartiality in searching 
 after and imparting the truth ; as a theologian, for the extent of his biblical 
 knowledge, the catholicity and candor of his theological opinions, and the fervor 
 of his childlike faith ; as a friend, for the warmth and endurance of his attachments ; 
 and as a man, for a rare assemblage of qualities which have secured to him an 
 enviable place in the love and respect of his generation. Few men have been 
 more distinguished in this country for eminence in so great a variety of departments 
 of scholarship and culture, and few men have secured for themselves the solid 
 respect of so great a number of their countrymen for high personal and moral 
 excellence." 
 
 President Woolsey was married, in September, 1833, to Elizabeth M., daughter 
 of Josiah Salisbury. She died in November, 1852, and he soon after married Sarah 
 S., daughter of Oilman Prichard, of Boston, Mass. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO PJi D I A . 9 
 
 'AYLAND, FRANCIS, D.D., LL.D., late President of Brown University, 
 Providence, Rhode Island. Born in New York, March nth, 1796. 
 His parents were Francis and Sarah Moore Wayland. Francis Wayland, 
 his father, was the son of Daniel and Susannah (Pritchard) Wayland, 
 and was born at Frome, Somersetshire, England, June 15th, 1772. Sarah Moore 
 Wayland, his mother— daughter of John and Elizabeth (Thompson) Moore— was 
 born at Norwich, England, August i6th, 1770. She and her husband were married 
 at Norwich, May 20th, 1793. 
 
 Of Dr. Wayland's more remote ancestors it is enough to state that they were 
 persons in the middle station of life, of Baptist sentiments, and for the most part 
 of more than usual piety. His parents emigrated to the New World shortly after 
 their marriage, and arrived in New York on the 20th of September, 1793. Mr. 
 Wayland immediately commenced business as a currier. He and his wife united with 
 the Fayette Street Baptist Church, of which he was early chosen a deacon. In 
 politics he was a Republican, in the family circle a methodically religious head, and 
 an earnest student of the Holy Scriptures. Licensed by his church as a lay preacher, 
 his labors were so acceptable and useful that he decided to abandon his lucrative 
 business altogether, and to devote himself exclusively to the work of the Christian 
 ministry. He became pastor of the Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie in 1807; and 
 after that was pastor of a Baptist church at Albany in 181 1, at Troy in 181 2, and 
 at Saratoga Springs in 18 19. The intervals between those dates represent the length 
 of his pastorates. In 1823 he ceased from pastoral cares, but spent his entire time 
 in ministerial and philanthropic labors. His avocations often called him away from 
 his family, and threw the training of the children greatly into the hands of the 
 mother, who had eminent qualifications for the task. Gentle of temper, winning in 
 manner, active in mind, and youthful in feeling, her influence was especially felt by 
 her eldest son, who loved her with fond and reverent devotion. Her beautiful and 
 benign character was perfected and transfigured by the influence of religious principle, 
 and reproduced itself in that of her distinguished son. 
 
 His education began in a boys' school — attended by white and colored children — . 
 in the rear of the old Methodist Church in John Street. Thence he passed to a 
 school taught by an English clergyman, who was a disciplinarian of the flogging 
 school, and who cultivated the verbal memory of his pupils to perfection. In his 
 eleventh year he entered the Dutchess County Academy, taught by the judicious 
 Rev. John Lawton, and afterward by the able and kindly Daniel H. Barnes. In 
 youth his character is best described by the following lines from the Paradise 
 Regained of John Milton : 
 
 "While I was yet a child, no childish play 
 To me was pleasing; all my mind was set, 
 
10 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO Fy£D I A . 
 
 Serious, to learn and know, and thence to do. 
 What might be public good ; myself I thought 
 Born to that end — born to promote all truth, 
 All righteous things." 
 
 In May, 1811, young Wayland, then fifteen years of age, entered Union College; 
 and, upon examination, was admitted to the third term of the Sophomore year. 
 Dr. Nott was then President, and Drs. Macauley and Brownell were the professors. 
 The instructors were able, but the course of instruction was very limited. "Chemistry 
 was scarcely born ; electricity was a plaything ; algebra was studied for six weeks ; and 
 geology was named only to be laughed at." Metaphysics and literary criticism were 
 the principal studies. The social influences were bad. He was a hard student, and 
 was never called up for violation of college laws. His advice to his college mates, 
 before they separated in 1813, was an indication of what his own future course 
 would be. " Boys," said he, " we have never done what we could ; we have not 
 known what we can do ; let us from this time try to make our mark in the 
 world." 
 
 Immediately after his graduation, on the 28th of July, 18 13, he began the study 
 of medicine under the instruction of Dr. Moses Hale, an eminent physician and 
 surgeon in Troy. Six months later he entered the office of Dr. Eli Burritt. The 
 winter of 1814-15 was spent at New York, in attendance on medical lectures. In 
 due time he received his license to practise medicine, and was considered a promising 
 candidate for professional success. But he had always had a decided impression that 
 he should be a preacher of the Gospel, and had frequently felt that his medical 
 studies were only an incident in his life. His religious convictions led him to an 
 entire consecration to God, and a hearty acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour. 
 He went to work at once to build up the Redeemer's Kingdom ; and when a 
 Sabbath-school was organized in Troy, offered himself as a teacher, and selected a 
 class of colored boys, because they most needed instruction, and because it seemed 
 to be most closely following the example of Christ. 
 
 Feeling it to be his duty to profess his faith in Christ, he was baptized and re- 
 ceived into the fellowship of the Baptist church. The preaching of the Gospel now 
 seemed to be the duty to which he was to devote his life, and in the autumn of 181 6 
 he settled his affairs in Troy and set out for the Theological Seminary at Andover, 
 Mass., where he was admitted without hesitation. The catalogue of the institution 
 for 18 16-17 contains sixty-seven names, of which some belong to men who were sub- 
 sequently celebrated in their respective branches of the church. The Faculty con- 
 sisted of Dr. Ebenezer Porter, Professor of Sacred Rhetoric; Dr. Leonard Woods, of 
 Christian Theology, and Dr. Moses Stuart, of Sacred Literature, The latter soon said 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. ii 
 
 of his new pupil : " He is an ingrained student." Dr. Stuart taught him to inquire, to 
 reason, to gather knowledge from various sources, and to pour its concentrated light on 
 the interpretation of the revealed Word. 
 
 Growth in grace kept pace with growth in knowledge. Funds were short, but 
 purpose was long. The year at Andover closed, and with a strengthened, liberal, cul. 
 tured mind, he next entered upon the duties of a college tutor in his Alma Mater at 
 Schenectady, N. Y. During his second residence there he was called upon, in con- 
 sequence of vacancies existing in the Faculty, to teach every class, and to teach almost 
 everything that was taught in college. Whatever he was doing, his mind was fixed on 
 that one thing, and he tried not to think of anything else. In this way he became 
 proficient in every department of the curriculum. While thus occupied he became 
 well acquainted with the Rev. Asahel Nettleton, received quickening religious impulses 
 from him, and also gained most valuable lessons on the best methods of addressing 
 men on religious subjects. 
 
 In 1820 Dr. Wayland was licensed to preach, and supplied feeble churches in the 
 vicinity of the college. He also instructed, during the later portion of his tutorship, a 
 number of candidates for the ministry, carrying them through a portion of Genesis in 
 the Hebrew Bible. After spending about four years in Union College, he resolved to 
 resign and enter upon the duties of the active ministry. In the spring vacation of 
 1 82 1 he went to Boston, taking with him his entire supply of sermons — eight in num- 
 ber — and preached for four Sundays in the First Baptist Church, which was destitute 
 of a pastor. The visit resulted in a call to the pastorate from a small majority of the 
 church and society. The call was accepted. On the 21st of August, 1821, he was or- 
 dained, and assumed the pastoral functions. His preaching was not particularly attract- 
 ive at first, but grew in popularity as the people learned to appreciate his elevated 
 manhood, deep piety, and thorough culture. " They became Waylandites," said the 
 Rev. Dr. Pattison, " not because of any peculiar doctrine taught by him, but because of 
 the influence his moral and intellectual power exerted upon them." For the first 
 eighteen months of his pastorate in Boston he boarded, as an unmarried man, with 
 Rev. Dr. Baldwin, one of his Baptist associates in the ministry. His relations with 
 clergymen of other denominations were cordial and pleasant ; his spiritual experi- 
 ences were similar to those of all earnest, sincere ministers ; and he was accustomed 
 to pour out his views and feelings in excellently-written communications to personal 
 
 friends. 
 
 In 1825 Mr. Wayland associated himself with Dr. Baldwin in editing the Ameri- 
 can Baptist Magazine, a periodical intended to promote the religious and mental 
 growth of the churches, and to further the evangelization of the world. On the death 
 of his venerable associate he assumed entire charge. At that time he favored a fed- 
 
12 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 erative union of the Baptist churches, but afterward fell back upon the old theory and 
 practice of the independence of the churches. He had already become favorably 
 known as an author by the publication of a sermon on The Moral Dignity of the 
 Missionary EnterpjHse, preached in his own church, October 24th, 1823, and since re- 
 printed in many forms. " With the exception of Webster's reply to Hayne, it may be 
 questioned whether any passage in American literature has been more often quoted 
 than the paragraphs which delineate the conquering march of the early church." Of 
 the sermon, Dr. A. P. Peabody wrote in 1862: "Dr. Wayland's sermon on The Moral 
 Dignity of the Missionary Eitterprise -rexmxns unequalled for grandeur of thought and 
 style. Its periods roll on as if fraught with the glory of a regenerated world. It sent 
 a glow of zeal and joy through the Christian hearts of the land, and, if we remember 
 aright, was reproduced in other tongues." The British Evangelical Magazine, July, 
 1825, said: "This splendid discourse is, beyond a doubt, the effort of a highly accom- 
 plished mind. It is the burst of genius and consecrated zeal. Seldom has it fallen to 
 our lot to peruse a sermon in all respects so valuable. Well may America glory in 
 the man who could rear such a monument." Said Robert Hall : " The author of that 
 sermon will be heard of again." Intellectually, it was the product of long years of 
 careful instruction, and of still more careful and exhaustive study. 
 
 In 1825 he published two excellent Fast-Day discourses on The Duties of an 
 American Citizen, of which Dr. Jared Sparks wrote : '' It is seldom we have met with 
 sounder views, or with sentiments more just and liberal on some important topics, than 
 are contained in these discourses. . . . They [Nos. i and 2] are both the productions 
 of a vigorous mind and a good heart, creditable to the talents and religious motives 
 of the author, and form a valuable addition to the stock of our literature." 
 
 Like Dr. Channing, Wayland was " always young for liberty ;" even more than that 
 distinguished divine he felt " the dependence of the eloquence of the pulpit upon a 
 deep experience of personal religion." 
 
 In November, 1824, Mr. Wayland took an active part in the organization of the 
 Massachusetts Baptist Convention, and was appointed its first Secretary. He was also 
 the first Secretary and one of the corporate members of the Board of Trustees of the 
 Newton Theological Institution, which was organized in the vestry of his church," in 
 May, 1825. Though so deeply interested in secular and ministerial education, he was 
 no less deeply interested in the great missionary enterprise, and was therefore anxious 
 that the two great causes should stand on their respective merits. Mainly through his 
 arguments the Triennial Baptist Convention of 1826 was induced to separate Colum- 
 bian College, at Washington, D. C, from its missionary operations, to remove its execu- 
 tive seat to Boston, and abolish the office of Agent. The Rev. D. Bolles, of Salem, was 
 elected Corresponding Secretary. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 13 
 
 Dr. Wayland was a model pastor, carefully guarded against any neglect, and 
 especially of the poor, sick, and suffering; conversed with his parishioners one by 
 one, possessed the keenest insight into their thoughts and feelings, and won their 
 utmost confidence. The materials for his sermons were largely collected from, or 
 suggested by, the conversation of the people, and therefore ministered directly to 
 their immediate needs. 
 
 On the 2ist of November, 1825, he was married, by Dr. Sharp, to Miss Lucy 
 L. Lincoln, of Boston, a lady of culture and refinement, and of rare Christian 
 excellence, who proved to be a helpmeet for hirh. She shared his solicitudes, joys 
 and sorrows. Among the last was the fact that, notwithstanding his marked 
 abilities, his congregation remained nearly stationary. Like many other true and 
 noble men, it was often his lot to sow, and that of his successors to reap the har- 
 vest. Many subsequent accessions to the Church attributed their conversion to his 
 instrumentality. Still, the comparative barrenness of result, at the time, troubled 
 him, and made him all the more willing to accept the professorship in Union 
 College, vacated by the resignation of Dr. Potter. His farewell sermon, preached 
 on the 17th of September, 1826, "was not wanting in tenderness, but was eminently 
 instructive and impressive." 
 
 Repairing to Union College, he entered at once upon his duties with interest. 
 The fact was, that while an eminent and faithful preacher and an ideal pastor, he 
 was supereminently qualified to be an instructor and guide of young men. This 
 was apparent to his intimate friends in Boston, and especially to the Rev. Drs. 
 Sharp and Bolles, who urged him to become a candidate for the presidency of 
 Brown University, which was soon to be made vacant by the resignation of Dr 
 Messer. Before he could remove his family to Schenectady he received the news 
 of his election, resigned his professorship, and in February, 1827, removed perma- 
 nently to Providence, and entered on his work as President. 
 
 On Dr. Wayland's presidency of Brown University, and what grew out of it, 
 his fame principally reposes. The institution was undisciplined and decadent. His 
 first business was to frame a new set of laws for the college^ and his second to 
 enforce them with wise and kind fidelity. The new code was approved by the 
 Faculty, and enacted by the Corporation, and the reorganized college began opera- 
 tions in February, 1827. The funds of the college and the standard of scholar- 
 ship were alike low, and his next care was to raise both. Some discontent was 
 exhibited, but the benefits of the change were soon apparent. " Year after year the 
 number of students increased. A valuable set of apparatus was presented to the 
 college by Messrs. Brown & Ives. A fund of twenty-five thousand dollars was 
 
14 niOGRAPHtCAL EN C V ClOP^D I A. 
 
 raised for the increase of the library. Students who had graduated under what 
 was called the ' New System,' were appointed to places of instruction as vacancies 
 occurred, and in a few years all moved on as harmoniously as if no other system 
 had ever been known." 
 
 " Perhaps no period of his life furnishes more forcible illustration of the salient 
 points of his character than the early years of his presidency. His untiring industry; 
 his close attention to details, where moral principle was involved or the general 
 welfare of the college was concerned ; his determination to discharge fearlessly the 
 duty which lay directly before him ; his habit of asking what was right, rather 
 than what seemed for the time expedient ; his keen and ever-abiding sense of personal 
 responsibility ; his exalted standard of excellence in his chosen calling, leading him 
 to be satisfied with nothing short of the highest attainable perfection ; his love of 
 exact justice ; his scorn of all sham, and of every form of deception ; his freedom 
 from anything like pride of opinion ; his veneration for truth, in reference to every 
 doctrine which he discussed, impressing a conviction upon all who heard him of his 
 courage and his candor ; the liberal and catholic spirit with which he approached the 
 consideration of every subject ; the strength of his moral convictions, and the 
 earnestness of his religious faith ; his love for the souls of his pupils, and his 
 intense and all-absorbing desire that the young men intrusted to his charge should 
 be not only successful scholars, but consistent Christians — all these qualities found 
 ample exercise and abundant illustration from the commencement to the close of 
 his administration of the affairs of the University." — Memoir of the Life and Labors 
 of Francis Way land, vol. z"., //. 213-14. 
 
 " During his presidency, and largely through his immediate agency. Manning Hall 
 was erected, the library fund was created, and the library planted on a new basis ; 
 Rhode Island Hall and the new President's house were built ; the college grounds 
 were enlarged and improved, and the college funds greatly increased. In all this 
 he was not a mere spectator, but an active leader and originator." His life-long 
 motto was, " Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." He was in 
 the habit of saying to his friends, " Nothing can stand before days' works." Some 
 of the most eminent legists and statesmen in Rhode Island and other States grad- 
 uated from the institution while he was at its head, and all bear willing testimony 
 to the completeness of his character and administration. He kept the rules that 
 he had been the means of imposing, and gave instruction, as it became necessary, 
 from time to time, in the ancient languages, in philosophy, rhetoric, ethics, and the 
 natural sciences. He also delivered a series of lectures on the Elements of Politi- 
 cal Economy, another on the Principles of Rhetoric, several lectures on Intellectual 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^D I A . 15 
 
 Philosophy, and a brief course upon the General Principles of Animal Physiology. 
 His acquaintance with the history of English jurisprudence was exact and thorough, 
 and he delighted to hold up for the admiration and imitation of his pupils the 
 shining examples of Sir Matthew Hale and other historically prominent jurists, both 
 in Great Britain and the United States. Patient, kindly, humorous, thorough, feeling 
 undivided accountability for the welfare of his pupils, and therefore a diligent 
 and profound instructor of Bible truths, Dr. Wayland was just the man to prepare 
 a manual of the Elements of Moral Science, which he did, and published in 1835. 
 Its circulation was remarkably wide. Many colleges and schools in the United 
 States adopted it as a text-book. It was reprinted in England, and translated into 
 the Hawaiian, Nestorian, and other languages. Bishop Potter said of it: "It is 
 conceived in a lofty spirit, and parts of it are executed with surpassing ability."^ 
 Chancellor Kent remarked : "I do not "know of any ethical treatise in which our 
 duties to God and to our fellow-men are laid down with more precision, simplicity, 
 clearness, energy, -and truth." 
 
 It received the compliment of review, not only in the periodical press, but in 
 stately Quarterlies and imposing volumes. 
 
 In common schools Dr. Wayland felt the deepest interest, and in 1827 laid 
 before the General Assembly of Rhode Island a plan for organizing a system of 
 free schools throughout the State. Other gentlemen gave most efficient aid in the 
 same direction, and at the January session of 1828 the proposed design received 
 the needed legislative sanction. He was also one of the founders of the "American 
 Institute of Instruction" — an institution which has been exceedingly useful in pro- 
 moting education in this country, and, indeed, throughout the world — and was its 
 first President. In July, 1838, the National Secretary of State addressed a letter 
 to him, asking his views " as to the mode of applying the proceeds of the 
 [Smithsonian] bequest which shall be likely at once to meet the wishes of the 
 testator, and prove advantageous to mankind." His reply, under date October 2d, 
 1838, shows how thoroughly he understood the case, and how best to apply the 
 avails of the legacy. 
 
 In tract and school societies, children's friend societies, dispensaries, and 
 other benevolent associations, he manifested the liveliest sympathies. With the ven- 
 erable and catholic Rhode Island Bible Society, auxiliary to the American Bible 
 Society, he co-operated throughout his life. "He was of opinion that all Protestant 
 Christians may, without any sacrifice of their distinctive principles, unite in circulating 
 the English version of the Scriptures, as well as those versions which are commonly 
 received among Christians in Protestant Europe. Nothing pertaining to the welfare 
 
i6 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 of humanity was foreign to his thoughts and feelings. He had a natural taste for 
 agriculture and horticulture, and on the 6th of October, 1841, delivered the annual 
 address before the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic 
 Industry. 
 
 On the 3d of April, 1841, death took from him his beloved wife, .whose 
 removal he sadly mourned. Additional responsibilities, in connection with his family, 
 were thrown upon him by this event. He made himself the companion, as well 
 as the governor, of his sons, and was as much beloved in the one relation as he 
 was revered in the other. 
 
 In 1837 Dr. Wayland published his Elements of Political Economy, a science 
 to which his attention had first been drawn by the simplicity of its principles, the 
 extent of its generalization, and the readiness with which its facts seemed capable 
 of being brought into natural and methodical arrangement. The work, both in its 
 larger and abridged forms, had a wide circulation. In the spring of 1838 he published 
 a small volume entitled. The Limitations of Human Responsibility ; following the 
 publication of the Moral Law of Acctfmulatio7i ; the Substance of Two Discourses , 
 issued in 1837. Thoughts on the Present Collegiate System, in the United States 
 followed in 1842 ; and Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Lnstitution, in a 
 Correspondence between the Rev. Richard Ftiller, D.D., of Beatfort, S. C, and the 
 Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., of Providence, R. L, in 1845. 
 
 This correspondence was characterized by Dr. Wayland's natural dignity and 
 courtesy, but he did not fail to pronounce slavery " at variance with the revealed will 
 of God, disastrous in its effects upon the morals both of master and slave, and 
 condemned by the principles of a sound political economy." 
 
 On the ist of August, 1838, Dr. Wayland was married to Mrs. H. S. Sage, of 
 Boston, a lady who proved to be a most worthy successor of the first Mrs. Wayland, 
 and of whom the children of the latter have always spoken in terms of grateful, loving, 
 praise. In 1840 he visited Europe, and was a welcome guest in the accomplished and 
 cultivated family of his uncle, Rev. Daniel S. Wayland, rector of Bassingham, England. 
 In church doctrine and poHty, and also in politics, they differed radically, and yet 
 were warm friends. He also visited France and Scotland — everywhere receivino- polite, 
 agreeable, and appreciative attentions. He returned in a condition of complete 
 emancipation from any undue reverence for the past, convinced that, in common with 
 his countrymen, " he was as likely to attain success by cherishing his own conceptions, 
 and by applying his independent judgment to the means of reaching results, as were 
 the men of the old world by worshipping the wisdom of the past." 
 
 In the Rhode Island political agitations of 1842 he publicly unfolded the true 
 principles of constitutional government, and exhibited the duty of the citizen to the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA . 17 
 
 commonwealth. To the repudiation of State debts, to the annexation of Texas, to 
 the war with Mexico, he was necessarily and righteously hostile. Each was an iniquity, 
 because of the immoral principles inhering in it, to one so clear-sighted and immova- 
 bly just. With the secession of the Southern Baptists from the Triennial Convention, 
 he, of course, had no sympathy. Bending his energies to the new organization of 
 the Missionary Union, the foreign missions of the churches were speedily in better 
 and more hopeful condition than before. 
 
 In 1849 Dr. Wayland issued an edition of the sermons delivered in the chapel of 
 Brown University, and "characterized by all that richness of thought and elegance of 
 language" for which the author was celebrated. At the college commencement of the 
 same year he resigned the presidency of the institution, prompted thereto by desire to 
 complete sundry literary undertakings, by decline in the number of students, and by 
 the failure to raise necessary additional funds. His subsequent response to the 
 urgently expressed wish of the Corporation that he should remain at the head of the 
 university prepared the way for a full communication of his views, and on March 
 28th, 1850, he presented his Report to the Corporation of Brown University on the 
 Changes in the System of Collegiate Education. Its eminent ability was recognized 
 by those who disagreed as well as by those who agreed with its conclusions, and its 
 appearance constituted the beginning of a new era in the history of collegiate edu- 
 cation in America. Again the college was reorganized on Dr. Wayland's plan ; 
 upward of $125,000 were subscribed to carry it out, and the number of students very 
 largely increased. Modern science in its applications to industrial art was included in 
 the instruction given by the college, and converted it into a thoroughly practical school. 
 Dr. Wayland's experiment, in harmony with his entire administration, was a mag- 
 nificent success. In 1852 he received from Harvard University the degree of Doctor 
 of Laws — a richly-deserved recognition of his talents and services. In 1853 appeared 
 his Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram, Judson, D.D., of which 
 25,000 copies were sold in sixty days. "The Memoir," said the North American 
 Review, " is admirably prepared. The style is grave, as befits the subject, but not 
 dull ; and, without any attempt at fine writing, rises, wherever the occasion calls for 
 it, into passages of great beauty." In 1854 appeared his Elements of Intellectual 
 Philosophy, of which " the order is natural, the method is simple, and both the 
 language and the illustrations are remarkable for their clearness." About the same 
 time he, in common with all good men, was profoundly agitated by the proposed pas- 
 sage of the Nebraska Bill, which he opposed by unanswerable arguments, on the ground 
 that it was designed to establish slavery through all the Territories concerned. On 
 the 20th of August, in the same year, he resigned all his official collegiate duties, and 
 on September 5th heard the bell ring, and with "unspeakable relief," for it was the 
 first time in nearly twenty-nine years that it called him "to no duty." 
 
i8 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.^ D I A . 
 
 Fixing his residence in Providence, Dr. Wayland interested himself in all public 
 affairs. The outrage on Senator Sumner called forth his sternest and most eloquent 
 denunciations. Identifying himself with the Republican party, he voted for PVemont 
 in 1856, and though not gratified by his election, still hoped and planned for the 
 future good of the nation. In 1855 he commenced, in the Examiner (N. Y.), a 
 series of letters, with the signature, "Roger Williams," entitled, "Notes iipon the 
 Principles and Practices of the Baptist Churches." These were republished in book 
 form in 1857, and are "everywhere interesting, instructive, full of sound judgment 
 and wisdom, written in charming English, and never violating a Christian spirit." 
 On the 5th of January, in the same year, the Rev. Dr. Granger, pastor of the 
 First Baptist Church of Providence, died, and Dr. Wayland was requested to take 
 his place until other arrangements could be made. He did so, and gave all his time 
 and energies to his work, toiled enthusiastically in the great revival of 1858, and 
 exhibited great executive power in setting others to work. Physical resources, indeed, 
 were overtaxed, and on the 30th of May he preached a sermon with which he de- 
 signed to close his labors. In 1858 were published his Sermons to the Churches, 
 and in 1859, Salvation by Christ ; a series of discourses on some of the most promi- 
 nent doctrines of the Bible, " regarded as a most valuable permanent contribution to 
 the special theological department it represents." 
 
 When the great Rebellion broke out. Dr. Wayland gave his prayers, his voice, 
 his pen, his substance, for its suppression, and for the preservation of the life and 
 liberties of the nation. One such man in the rear was worth a regiment in the 
 front. In the summer of 1862 he was appointed a member of the Board of Visitors 
 to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and ably discharged the 
 duties ot his office. In 1863 he published his Letters on the Ministry of tJie Gospel, 
 and in 1864 his Memoir of the Christian Labors, Pastoral and Philanthropic, of 
 Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. Besides these, he published many occasional ser- 
 mons, discourses, and addresses. 
 
 As a thinker and expounder Dr. Wayland was justly regarded as the leader of 
 his denomination. In many essential particulars he was, as Henry T. Tuckerman 
 remarked, to the American what John Foster was to the English Baptist churches. 
 His works have little ornament, but much originality, great natural charms, wide range 
 and strong grasp of thought, deep religious convictions, and singular sensibility to 
 moral beauty. 
 
 On the 15th of April, 1865, he was unspeakably shocked by reading the tidings 
 of the murder of the great and good Abraham Lincoln. About nightfall, in defer- 
 ence to the wishes of the citizens of Providence, he addressed them on the dreadful 
 tragedy, recounted the services of the martyred President, and dwelt with loving 
 
4- 
 
 1/1 
 
 iV^' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 19 
 
 eulogy upon his unswerving patriotism and high civic virtues. On the 6th of Sep- 
 tember he was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the " Gushing Institute," 
 Ashburnham, Mass., and briefly presented his views as to the course of studies that 
 should be pursued in it. On the following day he returned to Providence, and on 
 the 13th and 14th attended an ecclesiastical gathering in the Central Baptist Church, 
 at which he solemnly and powerfully addressed the audience on the afternoon of the 
 14th. On the 2 2d he found himself exceedingly weak. To an intimate Christian 
 friend he said : " I feel that my race is nearly run. I have, indeed, tried to do my 
 duty. I cannot accuse myself of having neglected any known obligation. Yet all 
 this avails nothing. I place no dependence on anything but the righteousness and 
 death of Jesus Christ." On the morning of Sunday, the 30th, " the tolling of the 
 bell of the First Baptist Church from eight to nine o'clock smote heavily on a thou- 
 sand hearts, telling them that the servant of God and the friend of man was no more 
 on earth." 
 
 Dr. Wa)dand was singularly blessed in his life, and singularly blessed in his death. 
 
 " He sleeps in death : its darkness hides 
 The grandeur of his form and face ; 
 The lesson of his life abides, 
 A blessing to the human race.'' 
 
 jORTER, NOAH, D.D., LL.D., President of Yale College, was born 
 December 14th, 181 1, in Farmington, one of the most beautiful and attractive 
 of the country towns of Connecticut. His father^ Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., 
 was for sixty years pastor of the only church in this town, of which one of 
 his ancestors was among the first settlers in 1640, and in which he had been himself 
 born in 1781. During his long life of eighty-five years he had the testimony of 
 each successive generation of his fellow-townsmen and parishioners to his moral 
 worth and to his abilities, as well as to his faithfulness in the discharge of his duties 
 as a Christian minister. Dr. Porter was also one of the best known and most 
 respected of the clergymen of the State, and was especially honored for his wisdom 
 in council. It was in his study that the "American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions" was organized, and held its first meeting September 5th, 18 10. For 
 
20 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 thirty-six years, also, he was a member of the Corporation of Yale College, and 
 much of the time a member of its most important committee. 
 
 In the home of such a father, all the associations connected with the early life 
 of the future President of Yale College were calculated to awaken an interest in 
 study and a desire to enter upon the life of a scholar. But there were still other 
 influences which contributed to stimulate in him the love of learning. There were 
 within the limits of the town two public libraries, which furnished a good selection 
 of books, which served to arouse in him a taste for the best literature. Farmington 
 was also the home of several families of wealth and cultivation, who gave to its 
 society a tone of refinement and elegance not often possessed at the time by the 
 smaller towns of the State. 
 
 .The interest which the boy early manifested in books was so great, and his 
 progress so rapid in the ordinary English branches of education, that, before he was 
 eight years of age, his father, at the soHcitation of his instructor, Mr. Simeon Hart, 
 who was about to spend the winter in the neighboring town of Winsted, and asked 
 to be permitted to take his pupil with him to begin the study of Latin, consented 
 to the arrangement. Mr. Hart subsequently graduated at Yale College, and 
 immediately resumed his position as teacher of the academy in Farmington, and 
 it was under him principally that young Porter was fitted for college. He was 
 for a short time, however, under the instruction of Mr. John H. Lathrop, who 
 was afterward Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and of Mr. Elisha N. 
 Sill, who has filled several important public offices, and is now living in Cuyahoga 
 Falls, Ohio. In 1824, also, an arrangement was made with his uncle, Dr. Humphrey, 
 President of Amherst College, of a kind which- at the time was not uncommon in 
 New England. He was received into the family of Dr. Humphrey, one of whose 
 sons took his place in the home at Farmington. While at his uncle's young Porter 
 studied under Mr. Ebenezer Snell, afterward Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 
 college at Amherst. Dr. Porter also sent his son for a term or two to the school 
 in Middletown, Conn., and he thus had what was then the unusual advantage 
 of seeing something of the world outside of his native town before he entered upon 
 his college life. 
 
 Still another of the influences under which President Porter was brought as a 
 boy should not be passed by without notice. His teacher, Mr. Flart, early interested 
 him in botany, and it was in pursuing his studies in this science that he was led to 
 accustom himself to long walks, and to acquire that habit of close observation, that 
 appreciation of the beauties of natural scenery, and that love of a life in the country, 
 which have characterized him ever since, and which have led him in his vacations to 
 undertake long expeditions through the Adirondack woods and the forests of Canada. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENC Y C LO P^D I A . 21 
 
 In his sixteenth year he left home to enter Yale College as Freshman. The class 
 of 1 83 1, of which he became a member, had in it an unusual amount of ability. 
 Its career, however, was a stormy one. The period in which it was in college 
 was marked by a widespread rebellion against the authority of the Faculty — known 
 as the " bread-and-butter rebellion" — in which a large number of students in each of 
 the classes participated. There was also an element of constant excitement in his own 
 class, in the struggle of a South Carolina faction and a Virginia faction for the 
 leadership. Mr. Porter took a high rank as a scholar, and so conducted himself 
 throughout his whole course as to secure the respect of the authorities of the college, 
 while at the same time he had the confidence of his classmates, for many of whom he 
 formed warm attachments which have proved lifelong. 
 
 After graduating in 1831, Mr. Porter became the rector of the ancient Latin 
 School in New Haven, which had been founded in 1660, and which is known as 
 the Hopkins Grammar School. Here he gained an honorable reputation for his 
 ability as an instructor, and especially for his success in administering discipline in a 
 school which had been traditionally somewhat unruly. 
 
 In 1833 he was elected tutor in Yale College, and served in that capacity for 
 two years as the instructor of the somewhat famous class of 1837 in Greek. 
 While tutor he pursued the regular course of study in. theology in the Yale Divin- 
 ity School under Rev. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor. 
 
 In 1836 he became the pastor of the Congregational Church in New Milford, 
 Connecticut, being ordained in April of that year ; and about the same time he was 
 married to Mary, the eldest daughter of Dr. Taylor. Mr. Porter's pastorate in New 
 Milford was a laborious one. The church was one of the largest in the State, 
 and its members, many of whom were farmers, were scattered over a town which 
 by the road was sixteen miles from north to south, and nine from east to 
 west. For nearly seven years he had the charge of this important church, where 
 he acquired reputation for his ability in the pulpit, and for the energy and faithful- 
 ness with which he discharged all the duties of a pastor, riding diligently at all 
 seasons over the long hills to visit his parishioners, and holding stated meetings 
 in the most remote districts of the town. It was while settled in this country 
 parish that he began by his contributions, published in the leading periodicals of 
 the day, to attract attention as an original and vigorous thinker on theological 
 and philosophical subjects. 
 
 In 1843 he became the 'pastor of the South Congregational Church in Spring- 
 field, Massachusetts, where he remained for four years, when he was chosen, in 1846, 
 Clark Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Yale College. After occupying 
 this chair for twenty-five years, on the resignation of President Woolsey, in 1871, 
 he was elected President. 
 
22 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 It was considered at the time to be a fortunate circumstance that a President 
 was secured who was acquainted with all the traditions of the college, and was in 
 thorough sympathy with them. President Porter's views on the subject of collegiate 
 education were set forth in his inaugural address, and in his work on American 
 Colleges. They are conservative, though he is by no means indisposed to seek for 
 improvements on the past, as is shown by the fact that during his administration very 
 important changes have been made in the methods of instruction. The college during 
 his presidency has been very prosperous. Several costly buildings have been erected ; 
 the corps of instructors has been much enlarged ; the Department of Philosophy and 
 the Arts has been reconstructed so as to induce instruction for graduate students ; 
 and the different departments of the college have been officially recognized by the 
 Corporation as having " attained to the form of a university." 
 
 President Porter dui'ing all his life has been a very voluminous writer. His 
 published works, consisting of reviews, essays, addresses, sermons, are too numerous to 
 mention here even by their titles. He is a constant contributor to the press and 
 to the most important magazines and reviews. He is the editor of all the later 
 editions of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. His most elaborate work is a treatise 
 on the Huma7i Intellect (New York, 1868; 8vo, pp. 673), of which Professor 
 Benjamin N. Martin, his reviewer, says {New Englander, January, 1869) : " In 
 comprehensiveness of plan and in elaborate faithfulness of execution the work is 
 far before any other in the language." He adds: "For such a labor of years, and such 
 an example of enthusiasm in the pursuit of abstract truth, the author's countrymen 
 may well be proud of him ; and . . . their grateful appreciation of an aim so 
 high, and so well sustained, will rank him, perhaps, foremost among our American 
 scholars in the loftiest and most difficult walk of investigation." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P.^D I A . 
 
 23 
 
 ^ASWELL, ALEXIS, D.D., LL.D., ex-President of Brown University, 
 
 Providence, R. I. Born at Taunton, Mass., January 29th, 1799. His 
 
 1^^ father, Samuel Caswell, belonged to the yeomanry of New England, 
 
 eT and was descended through a worthy ancestry of Taunton farmers from 
 Thomas Caswell, one of the first settlers of that town. On the mother's side he was 
 descended from Peregrine White, who was born on board the Mayflower, in November, 
 1620, and who derived his name. Peregrine, from his having been the first child of 
 E-nglish descent born in America — a country so foreign at that time to the Pilgrim 
 Fathers. From this truly distinguished parentage Dr. Caswell derived his somewhat 
 severe nature, strong good sense, clear intelligence, and warm family feeling. In 
 youth he was a model of dutiful affection, and exhibited not a little of that filial 
 awe of parents which characterized the best days of Puritan family life. His 
 mother, we are told by Professor J. L. Lincoln, "was a woman of native refine- 
 ment, quite in advance of her surroundings, and of a sweetness and gentleness of 
 nature" that seemed to have passed into her son. Her life, at home and abroad, 
 was under the control of deep and genuine piety, that blessed her immediate 
 surroundings, and also the entire neighborhood. Her husband, who survived her 
 death for more than thirty years, never attempted to fill her place, and never could 
 speak of her to his children with " a steady voice or an undimmed eye." 
 
 In this genuine Christian home Alexis Caswell — one of a family of nine 
 children — grew up into boyhood and youth. Here he was trained to those habits 
 of self-denial and honest labor which quicken the mental faculties and develop 
 manly character, while they mature and invigorate the body. His father's two 
 chief heroes were Washington and Franklin. " Poor Richard's Maxims," framed by 
 the latter, were commended to the adoption of the boys ; and the patriotic virtues 
 and valor of the " Father of his Country" were also proposed for their imitation. 
 Their secular education was the subject of constant solicitude. In the long winter 
 evenings he acquainted himself with the exact stage of their progress in the studies 
 pursued at the district school, and stimulated their ambition by arithmetical puzzles of 
 his own devising. This paternal interest in his intellectual culture doubtless fostered 
 the desire to obtain a liberal education. With his father's consent he entered 
 upon a course of study preparatory to admission at college, in the Bristol Acad- 
 emy at Taunton, under the instruction of the Rev. Simeon Doggett. Attendance 
 at that institution involved a five miles' walk every morning and evening — a walk 
 in which the study of his lessons, and of the deeper and more lasting truths 
 taught by beautiful and changing nature, were alternately enjoyed. 
 
 Preliminary acquisitions obtained, young Caswell presented himself for matricu- 
 lation at Brown University, in September, 1818. Athletic, bright, attractive, he at 
 
24 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO PyE D I A . 
 
 once formed friendships that were subsequently " unchanged, undimmed by the 
 lapse of time." Among his fellows he stood conspicuous by his vigorous mind, 
 serious purpose, and love of excellence in all the departments of learning. He 
 had the gift for labor and intent study which marks the naturally talented, and 
 which also augurs their future success. All college tasks were performed to the 
 best of his ability. In the ancient classics he achieved honorable distinction, won 
 favorable remark as a speaker and writer, but was more renowned for scientific than 
 for literary attainments. " In the mathematics he rose to eminence as a scholar in his 
 first year, and subsequently held a like rank in natural philosophy." Later on in 
 his course he became specially interested in ethics and metaphysics. Admired for 
 his superiority in all these departments of thought and labor, and beloved for his 
 genial social qualities, he was no less eminent for excellence in the play and sport 
 of college, life. " The tradition comes down to us that he could wrestle successfully 
 with the strongest men on the college campus, and that he was a match for the 
 best in all other athletic sports." 
 
 The ordinary temptations of a college career were powerless to turn him aside 
 from his chosen path, but it was not until about the middle of it "that he came 
 into the experience alike of the moral restraints and the peaceful freedom of that 
 Christian faith" which were always associated with his subsequent life. " There 
 was a day in the spring term of his Sophomore year which he was wont to count 
 as his spiritual birthday," and which was noted above all previous days by " a believ- 
 ing acceptance of Christ as a Saviour and Lord," and in which " he felt himself to be 
 a renewed child of God, a redeemed disciple of Christ, and consecrated to his ser- 
 vice." In July of the same year he was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Gano, and received 
 into the membership of the First Baptist Church in Providence, of which he con- 
 tinued to be an honored and most useful member to the close of life. 
 
 Discipleship to Christ he found to be consistent with the highest honors and 
 grandest successes of human life, and indeed directly conducive to them. The mem- 
 bers of his class felt " that Caswell would have its highest honors on the day of gradua- 
 tion," a presentiment which was justified by his appointment to deliver an oration at 
 commencement with the valedictory addresses. On that occasion he acquitted him- 
 self with usual credit. After graduation he intended to enter upon a course of theo- 
 logical study, and to make the work of the Christian ministry his special pursuit. But 
 natural fitness and Divine Providence had otherwise determined. He was soon ap- 
 pointed to a tutorship in Columbian College, Washington, D. C, and entered upon the 
 duties of his office in January, 1823. Two years afterward, in 1825, he was elected to 
 the Professorship of Ancient Languages. The institution itself had been estabHshed 
 under the direction of the Baptist General Convention of the United States, with the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 25 
 
 specific end in view of training Christian young men for the work of the ministry. 
 Under the name of Columbian University, it now takes high rank among the learned 
 institutions of the country. Several young men, who afterward became eminent, were 
 among his early professional associates. Chief, perhaps, among them was Thomas J. 
 Conant, " just beginning that career as a linguist, which has since become so illus- 
 trious," in the domain of American biblical scholarship. Professor Caswell proved 
 himself to be an able and successful teacher, and one who commanded the confidence 
 and love of his pupils by the kindly interest evinced in their progress and welfare. 
 
 While thus engaged as a teacher he did not lose sight of his ultimate goal — the 
 ministry of the Gospel of Christ — but pursued his theological studies under the direc- 
 tion of the President of the college, the learned and eloquent Dr. William Staughton. 
 Hebrew was diligently studied at the same time, with the help of Dr. Irah Chase, 
 Theological Professor of the institution. There, too, he received license to preach, 
 shared the duty of conducting Sunday academic service in the college chapel, and 
 occasionally preached in some of the church pulpits in Washington. His style of min- 
 istration was direct and practical, simple and calm, and full of that earnestness which 
 carries conviction to the minds of the hearers of the speaker's own faith in the doc- 
 trines he enounces, and of the truth of the doctrines themselves. 
 
 In 1827 he resigned his professorship and returned to New England, and in Sep- 
 tember of the same year accompanied Dr. Irah Chase — then a professor in the New- 
 ton Theological Seminary — on a journey to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in order to assist in 
 the formation of a Baptist church. This he did, and afterward yielded to the solicita- 
 tions of the new organization to remain for a time at Halifax, and labor among them 
 as their minister. As such he needed ordination, and received that solemn consecra- 
 tion to the ministry of Christ on Sunday, October 7th. Ten days after his arrival 
 in Halifax he was exercising the functions of an ordained minister, and that too with 
 universal acceptance and success. The Rev. Dr. E. A. Crawley, his successor in the 
 pastorate, and then one of his parishioners, says that "he was a popular and attractive 
 preacher, and that his discourses, which were written, but preached without the use of 
 notes, attracted full and even overflowing houses." Kindly, sympathetic, and acquainted 
 with the ordinary course of worldly affairs, he was no less successful as a pastor. A 
 large congregation was gathered, and from it accessions were made to the church, 
 which continues to this day to be a fountain of spiritual and moral blessing to the 
 entire community in which it is situated. 
 
 While thus beneficently occupied. Professor Caswell was invited to take the Pro- 
 fessorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Waterville College, now Colby 
 University, at Waterville, Maine, but did not feel at liberty to accept the call. Toward 
 the end of July, 1828, he was invited by the First Baptist Church in Providence to 
 
26 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 supply their pulpit during the month of August. The venerable Dr. Gano had then 
 resigned the pastoral care of the church, after a fruitful ministry of thirty-six years, 
 and his successor had not yet been chosen. But whatever his expectations or the 
 desires of the church may have been, an unexpected and decisive turn was given to his 
 plans, and to his whole life, by the proffer of the Professorship of Mathematics and 
 Natural Philosophy in Brown University — just vacated by the resignation of Rev. Alva 
 Woods, D.D. He accepted the offer, and assumed the duties of his office at the be- 
 ginning of the academic year. 
 
 President Wayland was in office at the time, and in all his noble cares and un- 
 wearied efforts for the good of the institution found none among his associates on 
 whom he could more fully rely for intelligent and zealous co-operation than Professor 
 Caswell. The good sense and admirably-poised judgment, the sincerity and integrity, 
 the fidelity and many-sided ability of the latter made him an invaluable counsellor. In 
 his new position he was for several years responsible for all the scientific instruction of 
 the college. In 1850 the style of his professorship was changed to that of mathe- 
 matics and astronomy, and his professional labors were thenceforward restricted to mathe- 
 ematics, and sciences germane to the objects of his chair. " Though he did not by 
 original thought make contributions to the science of quantity, he was a well-read 
 and learned mathematician ; he had studied and mastered the works of some of the 
 greatest writers of the science, and was conversant with the results of their researches." 
 His opinions on the value of mathematical studies, as means of intellectual disci- 
 pline, were fully unfolded in his discourse before the Rhode Island Alpha of the Phi 
 Beta Kappa Society, entitled, The Mathematical Studies as a Branch of Liberal Edii- 
 cation, with an exactness of method, a straightforward sequence from the premises 
 to the conclusions, and an energy of diction that beautifully illustrated his own theory. 
 
 Astronomy, the oldest and grandest of the natural sciences, was that for which 
 Professor Caswell had a special predilection and a growing mental fondness. 
 " Here was the centre of his choicest scientific thinking and service ; here he was 
 at home as a laborious and successful student ; and it was a true and satisfying 
 home for his mind, where its noblest cares and most studious labors were em- 
 ployed, where the scientific and the ethical tendencies of his nature met and united 
 in harmonious action." To ethical and theological inquiries he had a strong native 
 tendency. Butler s\ Analogy was a favorite book with him; for, while fully appre- 
 ciating the superiority of demonstrative reasoning in respect to the certainty of its 
 conclusions, he was no less alive to the sovereign authority of probability as the 
 guide of human life in its gravest concerns. At the scientific meeting in Mont- 
 real in 1857, at which he presided, he astonished an English clergyman by quoting 
 a passage from the Analogy without deviating in a single word from the well- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 27 
 
 known peculiar style of that work. In 1858 he delivered a course of four lectures 
 on astronomy at the Smithsonian Institution' in Washington, which were deemed 
 so valuable by the secretary of that establishment that he published them in an 
 appendix to his Annual Report of that year. As a meteorologist he was still more 
 celebrated. For forty years his observations were almost continuous ; and those 
 which cover a period of twenty-nine years, from 1831 to i860, were published in 
 full in the twelfth volume of the Smithsonian Contribtdions to Knowledge, covering 
 nearly two hundred quarto pages. Professor Henry, Secretary of the Institution, 
 wished to have them in permanent form, " being impressed with the service which 
 they would render to the progress of meteorological research." 
 
 Professor Caswell's acknowledged scientific eminence won him distinction in 
 many ways. In 1850 he was elected Associate Fellow of the American Academy 
 of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the American Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, and bore an active part in the discussions at its annual 
 meetings. He presided at the meeting of the association held in Montreal in 
 1857, and "sustained the credit of his country on a foreign soil by his dignified 
 presence and his manly eloquence, to the great satisfaction of all his associates." 
 In 1858, also, he was elected to the presidency, and in 1859, ^t Springfield, 
 delivered an address, on his retirement from office, that was aptly characterized as 
 " admirable in thought, spirit, and style." It maintained the doctrine that true 
 science is the minister and interpreter of religion and of the Christian revelation. 
 " I shall not hesitate," he said, " to declare here my profound conviction that true 
 science is in harmony with the Bible, rightly interpreted. Any seeming dis- 
 crepancy which baffles the resources of ingenuity to reconcile is but the varying 
 ripple in the mighty swell of the ocean, whose exact form no power of analysis 
 can express, and no skill of pencil can sketch." The fact that on the establish- 
 ment of the National Academy of Sciences by Congress, in 1863, he was one of 
 the fifty men of science in the United States who were selected by the Govern- 
 ment as its original corporators, shows the national scientific reputation he had 
 already achieved. 
 
 The very affluence of Professor Caswell's erudition, and the copiousness of its 
 outflow in the professional chair, seems to have operated somewhat against his 
 .highest possible efficiency as an educator by preventing due stimulation of the minds 
 of his pupils. Those who were willing and anxious to learn found in him one 
 of the best possible helpers ; those who were inclined to indolence found escape 
 from the necessity of severe intellectual exertion in the very abundance of his 
 thorough and interesting instructions. The ingenious devices and inventions of the 
 latter class of students never escaped his notice, and sometimes met with rebuke 
 that was the more keenly felt because it was so kindly and benevglent 
 
28 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 From a Christian point of view, Professor Caswell was a model educator. Like 
 Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, he believed that the function of a teacher, no less than of 
 a parish minister, is the cure of souls ; that " only by holding right personal rela- 
 tions to their Creator and to the Saviour of the world, through the renewing grace 
 of the Gospel," could his students " be prepared as educated men to serve their 
 generation by the will of God" Such educators are inestimable. 
 
 Thus, teaching, preaching, and moulding individual characters by precept and 
 benign example. Professor Caswell spent a little more than thirty-five of the years 
 of his useful life. After President Wajdand's administration had ended, Dr. Caswell 
 continued to serve the college with fidelity and zeal during the eight years of 
 President Sears's eminently successful administration. In the academic year of 
 1840-41, while Dr. Wayland was in Europe, he discharged the duties of President 
 pro tempore. In 1841 he received from the -university the well-earned degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity. In June, i860, he commenced a year's tour of travel and 
 observation in Europe, visiting England and the Continent, and spending the winter 
 in Italy. In England and Scotland he was the recipient of marked attention from 
 scientific circles, and especially from distinguished mathematicians and astronomers 
 connected with the universities and royal observatories of those countries. 
 
 In November, 1863, Dr. Caswell, then at the age of sixty-four, resigned his pro- 
 fessorship. In 1868 he was summoned by the voice of the Corporation to the 
 presidency of the university, and accepted the call. On the morning of February 
 1.7th he was inducted into office by the chancellor of the university, in the presence 
 of members of the Corporation, the Faculty, and the undergraduates, and immediately 
 entered upon his new official duties. 
 
 President Caswell opened the exercises of his first commencement by gathering 
 the alumni in Manning Hall, to consult and plan with him for the promotion of 
 the interests of their common Alma Mater. There the Alumni Association was 
 formed, and of it he was elected the first president. Under his presidency the resources 
 of the college were enlarged, and new departments of study were organized and pro- 
 vided with means of instruction. The Museum of Natural History owes its origin 
 and estabhshment to his judicious efforts. The Hbrary also is largely indebted to his 
 exertions. The duties of his position were always discharged in the spirit of manly 
 independence, and with ideal faithfulness to the responsibilities devolved upon him. 
 To the students he was a kind and courteous friend, and to all an affable and noble 
 Christian gentleman. At the end of 1871 he resigned the presidency; but, at the 
 request of the class of 1872, delivered a Baccalaureate sermon to them on the after- 
 noon of the Sabbath preceding commencement. He was then in his seventy-fourth 
 year, had graduated half a century before, and crystallized all the advices growing out 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 29 
 
 of his experiences in the words of the Hebrew preacher : " Remember now thy 
 Creator in the days of thy youth." The sermon was one that will ever live in the 
 memory of the audience. 
 
 President Caswell was a many-sided man, and therefore a man of public spirit, 
 broad views, and catholic sympathies. Nothing pertaining to the welfare of humanity 
 was foreign to his thoughts and efforts. He was one of the principal agents in the 
 establishment of the Providence system of public instruction, and was for many years 
 a member of the School Committee. He was one of the earHest friends of the 
 Providence Athenaeum, and for eight years was one of the Board of Directors, and 
 for eight years more was vice-president of the institution. He was one of the 
 original trustees of the Rhode Island Hospital, and a member of the Building Com- 
 mittee. In November, 1875, he was elected president of that institution, and retained 
 the office until the day of his death. His connection with the hospital is perma- 
 nently commemorated by the " President Caswell Free Bed," which was established by 
 the liberal contributions of his friends, who were also friends to the institution. 
 
 Faithfulness in all things was one of the grand characteristics of Alexis Caswell. 
 He both understood and illustrated the sublime idea of duty. To him the Church 
 turned instinctively in seasons of pastorless destitution. To him the sorrowing repaired 
 for counsel and comfort in hours of weakness and suffering. He forgot himself in 
 seeking the welfare of others. He counted all his colaborers for the common good 
 as fellow-servants with himself of one Master, and reckoned him only to be the first 
 and chief who was willing to be last of all and servant of all. In all great Chris- 
 tian enterprises he was most deeply interested, and in the institutions organized to 
 insure their success. An earnest advocate of an educated ministry, he was, through 
 all his life, one of the most efficient friends of the Newton Theological Institution. 
 He was the third president of its Board of Trustees, and for many years a member 
 of the board. By acting on committees of examination, as well as by liberal con- 
 tributions, he also sought to promote its usefulness and success. 
 
 No enterprise of the Church of Christ was more dear to his heart than that of 
 foreign missions. With its origin, history, progress, and prospects he was thoroughly 
 familiar. " He attended, whenever it was possible, the annual meetings of the Baptist 
 Missionary Union, in which he bore a prominent part. He was chosen president of 
 the Union at its meetings in 1867, and was re-elected in 1868, and presided at the 
 memorable annual meeting held the next year in Boston." 
 
 After his resignation of the presidency of Brown University, Dr. Caswell lived 
 some years in green and fruitful old age, in which he suffered not from infirmities 
 of body or mind, nor withdrew from active pursuits, but enjoyed his exalted pleasures 
 and occupations, which imparted new dignity to his countenance and additional 
 
30 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 weight to his character. At the meeting of the Corporation, in which he retired 
 from the presidency, he was chosen a memher of the Board of Trustees, and in 1875 
 a member of the Board of Fellows. In both relations his successor in office spoke 
 of Dr. Caswell as his "most cordial supporter, his trusted friend, and his confi- 
 dential adviser." In his last years he was " one of the inspectors of the State Prison, 
 where, besides the labors which he performed for the good of the convicts, he often 
 preached to them and instructed them in the Sunday-school." On rare public occa- 
 sions he was one of the most honored and influential of the speakers, his dignity, 
 voice, and language reminding his hearers of Homer's description of Nestor : " Out 
 of his tongue there flowed a speech sweeter than honey." " As he talked," wrote a 
 hearer, "it seemed impossible that he himself had passed his threescore years and ten, 
 for he carries those years only as a crown, not as a burden ; and the very sunshine 
 of youth still warms and softens his clear, strong voice, and gives vivacity to his 
 manner." 
 
 To the last days of life he was deeply interested in subjects of great and even 
 abstruse interest. Only a month before his departure he was engaged in the renewed 
 study of the life and labors of Livingstone, and in the last learned work of the 
 German Helmholtz, on The Sensations of Tone as a Basis for a Theory of Music. 
 On Monday, the 8th of January, 1877, at the close of his last illness, he asked that 
 the closed shutters of his room might be opened, that he might once more greet 
 the sun at his coming. A brighter sun than that of this world beamed on his 
 sanctified spirit, and he joyously passed away to rejoice and expatiate forever in the 
 bright and beautiful land where the sun never goes down, and the days of mourn- 
 ing are ended forever. Of Dr. Caswell it was pre-eminently true, that he did justice, 
 loved mercy, and walked humbly with God. 
 
L1 
 
 -V ct-ie/ 
 
 ^ 
 

 BIOGRAP H TCAL E N C YC L O F.E £> I A . 31 
 
 §|RADLEY, CHARLES SMITH, LL.D., of Providence, ex-Chief Justice of 
 
 la 
 
 ^m the vSupreme Court of Rhode Island. Born in Newburyport, Mass., July 19th, 
 1 8 19. His father, Charles Bradley, was a merchant of Andover, Mass. The 
 ?v Bradley family is of pure English stock. Men who bore that name have 
 been identified with some of the proudest and most momentous epochs in English 
 history. Representatives of it, in association with potential or actual heroes of other 
 patronymics, helped in colonial times to foster and develop those elements of 
 national character which have made the American Republic the glorious and suc- 
 cessful fact that it confessedly is to-day. 
 
 The mother of Judge Bradley, nie Sarah Smith, daughter of Jonathan K. Smith, 
 of Haverhill, Mass., was the grand-daughter of Rev. Hezekiah Smith, D.D., one of 
 the chaplains of the Revolutionary army, and a minister of most beneficent influence 
 on the patriot soldiery in the field, as well as upon their famiHes and friends at 
 home. Dr. Smith was one of the Fellows of Brown University for more than forty 
 years, and laid that venerable institution under obligations to perpetual gratitude by 
 his disinterested and useful labors for its sustenance and endowment. 
 
 The intimate connection of his maternal great-grandfather with Brown University, 
 determined young Bradley to seek collegiate instruction within its halls rather than 
 in those of Harvard University. The same determination issued in permanent 
 relations to Rhode Island as one of her most prominent citizens and cherished 
 sons. Preparation for matriculation at Brown was obtained in the Boston Latin 
 School. His entrance upon study in the university was in the year 1834. Four 
 years subsequent to that date he graduated with the diploma of A.B. The degree 
 of A.M. was afterward received in due course. 
 
 Several of the first of Mr. Bradley's post-graduate years were spent as tutor in 
 the service of his Alma Mater. The legal profession, however, had stronger 
 attractions than the educational. He entered the Harvard Law School, at Cam- 
 bridge, Mass., and also studied in the law-office of Charles F. Tillinghast, Providence, 
 R. I. Admitted to practice at the bar in 1841, he formed a business copartner- 
 ship with his former preceptor, and maintained it for a number of years. The 
 association was fortunate for both parties. Mr. Tillinghast is held in pleasant 
 and respectful memory by many of the older citizens of the State for the simplicity 
 of his manners, the diligence exhibited iti professional pursuits, and the sterling probity 
 of his character. 
 
 Politically, Judge Bradley has always been affiliated with the Democratic party. 
 In 1854 he was elected as representative of the city of Providence to the 
 Senate of Rhode Island, in which ' he materially aided the passage of an act of 
 amnesty to all who were obnoxiously concerned in the Dorr Rebellion of 1842. 
 
32 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Although a conscientious and consistent adherent of the Dennocratic party, Judge 
 Bradley has invariably assumed that American citizenship involves duties and privi- 
 leges that are infinitely higher than those pertaining to mere political party, and 
 his public actions have as invariably been in harmony with the assumption. His 
 speech at a public meeting held in Providence, June 9th, 1856, to express the 
 indignation and grief of the citizens over the attack of Representative Brooks, of 
 South Carolina, upon the person of Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, is illustrative 
 of this fact. 
 
 " Is it not well, sir," he asked, " that the second city in New England — the 
 first which is not connected by any personal ties with Mr. Sumner — should speak 
 of this outrage, not in the first flush of our indignation, but in the tones of 
 dehberate condemnation } That the capital of a State which, in the darkest hours 
 of the Revolution, gave a Greene to South Carolina ; which annually welcomes to 
 its borders the children of the South — upon those beautiful shores which the river 
 in the sea, with its balmy breath, bends to kiss ; a State which has ever given 
 the hand of help, and the hand of welcome, should speak even of this blow more 
 in sorrow than in anger ? It is certainly well that men of all political parties of 
 the past, of all political parties of the present, ay, and of all political parties of 
 the future, should unite in the decision we this morning render upon this great 
 wrong. I shall not follow the gentleman who has opened this meeting in any 
 description of the scene upon the floor of the Senate. It is not for me to retouch 
 what my master has painted. ' Brutal, murderous, and cowardly ! ' The challenge 
 has stamped these words upon the memory of the American people. Though 
 coarse and strong, they are ' fit description of the act.' We all remember, sir, 
 the story of the Roman senators and the Gauls. The barbarian, to assure himself 
 whether the silent forms before him were human beings or images of the gods, 
 touched the venerable beard. The instincts of humanity resented the insult. You 
 know the sequel. Those white locks were reddened in blood — those silent forms 
 motionless in death. 
 
 "When the barbarian entered the American Senate-chamber, was it but an 
 accidental or a providential interposition of time and place which prevented the 
 weapons of death in opposite hands from the work of mutual slaughter? Seem- 
 ingly slight events in the hands of Providence make or mar the destinies of 
 individuals and of nations. One such scene of slaughter on the floor of the 
 Capitol, and Congress might never re-assemble ! The threescore years and ten allot- 
 ted to mortal life would have spanned our existence as a united people. 
 
 " But, sir, we are not here to speak of this affray in a personal aspect alone, 
 however near it came to the perilous edge of murder and disunion. We should 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENC Y C L O FJE D I A . 
 
 33 
 
 not waste our time on Mr. Brooks. We know that brutality and cowardice go 
 hand in hand; because brutal passions and true moral courage cannot harmonize 
 in the same character. We can pass him, sir, if not with Christian forgiveness, 
 at least with silent and manly contempt. But, sir, behind and beyond him there is 
 something which calls us together. If the first flashes of the telegraph and the 
 first words of the press do not mislead us, there were a thousand — ay, ten times 
 ten thousand arms in that blow. The assassin was the representative of many. 
 
 " If the South upholds this act, the antagonism of their civilization and ours 
 will mount higher and higher, and come closer and closer ; and it requires no 
 horoscope to show the future. But, sir, we believe that beneath the foam and 
 the spray upon the surface of Southern society there is a ground-swell. There are 
 the big rollers of a sounder public opinion — an opinion which has its origin in 
 the thoughtful man 'mid the avocations of life — with the mother in her family, 
 with the Christian in his closet. To that public opinion we speak. To it we 
 say — ^we implore — we command — that these things must not be, shall not be. No 
 matter into what extravagant utterances the goads and insults of many years may 
 have maddened the scholarly reserve of a youthful Senator, he but retorted what 
 he had received ; and this is an outrage the commission of which, in a civilized 
 community, no provocation can justify. 
 
 "Not among the hard and dubious compromises of the Constitution by which 
 you hold us bound, but among its clearest and most cherished provisions, are those 
 which secure freedom of speech and immunity to our Senators and Representatives 
 from personal violence for words spoken in debate — ay, from being questioned 
 even. The good old common law — your heritage and ours, your monarch and 
 ours — which draws its best wisdom from the bosom of .Christianity itself, has ever 
 held and declared, ' without variableness or shadow of turning,' that words do not 
 justify blows. If our civilization, and Constitution, and the law, are thus trampled 
 down, there is no alternative but that from which every American bosom shrinks 
 with instinctive dread. We are not above the wisdom of Washington. We 
 remember and reverence his farewell counsels upon the infinite value of the Union. 
 We are not above the mind of Webster, when — culminating in the zenith of his 
 powers — he could not fathom the gulf of disunion ; for therein were States dis- 
 severed, discordant, belligerent ; a land rent with civil feuds, and drenched, it may 
 be, in fraternal blood. ' The old man eloquent,' who passed the tranquil evening 
 of a stormy career upon the banks of the Seekonk, from one of those heights of 
 vision — which in his eloquence he sometimes ascended — beheld the apocalypse of 
 disunion. As he turned from its horrors he found consolation even in the thought 
 that ere its coming he had sheltered his last daughter in the sanctuary of the tomb. 
 3 
 
34 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C YC LO P^ D 1 A . 
 
 With the ' Father of his Country,' with its constitutional statesmen, with one of the 
 most fearless champions New England ever placed upon the floor of Congress, we 
 shrink from disunion, and for this reason among others, — gentlemen of the South, — we 
 say these things must not — SHALL NOT BE. 
 
 " It is hard enough to abide by the compromises of the Constitution. It is hard 
 enough to persuade our people to leave this dark mystery of Southern slavery, 
 as they leave the yet darker degradation of the race in Africa, to the inscrutable 
 purposes and methods of Him with whom ' a thousand years are as one day, and 
 one day as a thousand years;' who holds in the hollow of His hand this globe 
 which we inherit, and the myriad worlds which shine upon us from the starry 
 depths of night, and yet without His care not a sparrow falls to the ground. 
 But if the sons of the South will persist in these mad revelries at Washington, even 
 while they are in the midst thereof, there are those whom you call ' blind giants,' 
 who will heave from their base the columns of this Temple of our Union; and its 
 dome, which has overarched our prosperity like the protecting heaven, will come 
 down in crushing ruin upon you and upon us. This man should by every con- 
 stitutional method be forever banished from the Capitol he has so foully dishonored. 
 This barbarism must be purged from the houses of Congress ; for if it there abide, 
 civilized and Christian communities cannot there send civilized and Christian men 
 to represent them — men venerable in years and wisdom, who have passed the ordeal 
 of human temptation without scar, without spot, without blemish. We must send 
 men like those whom they meet ; and rather than do it, rather than see the 
 high places of power filled with beings who crawl by paths through which man dis- 
 dains to climb, and hang hissing at the nobler men below, we will turn from you 
 to the dread alternative of disunion, and embark upon its ocean of untried experi- 
 ments, though the heart of the noblest mariner should quake as he puts his foot 
 upon the deck. 
 
 " But, sir, it was a maxim of Roman wisdom and patriotism, and not less, I 
 trust, of our own, ' Never despair of the Republic' When we last assembled 
 in this place it was to hear Edward Everett speak of George Washington. From 
 the sacred desk, from the lecture-room of the professor, from either of the halls 
 of Congress, from the chair of state, from the embassy to our motherland, from 
 the presidency of our most venerable literary institution, from the place made vacant 
 by the death of Webster, from all the experiences of a long and honored life, from 
 all the resources of an elegant and varied scholarship, he was prepared, like no other 
 living man, to render a fit tribute to the memory of Washington. It would be 
 vain for me to attempt to describe it. You heard it. It was a distinction in the 
 generation which preceded us to have seen Washington. It will be ours in future 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 35 
 
 years to have heard Everett speak of Washington. May the pious labor in which 
 he is engaged — the endeavor to engrave upon the minds of his countrymen the 
 majestic image of that character, to place it before us as guardian and guide — 
 may the kindred labors of the great and good in the North and in the South, 
 in the East and in the West, be prospered ! With that spirit among us, the 
 American who stands before the white columns upon which the State of Maryland, 
 in the Monumental City, hath lifted into the clear blue sky the immortal form of 
 Washington, will yet rejoice that the Monumental is a central city in the Union. 
 As he voyages upon the Potomac, and the tolling bell reminds him that he is 
 approaching the ashes of Mount Vernon, he will turn toward them with no tears 
 but those of reverential emotion. With our great orators of the North we can 
 point to the plain shaft on Bunker's height as a fit, though inadequate, emblem 
 of the colossal grandeur of his character and life, and claim him as the best gift 
 of United America to the world. May his serene presence still the acrimony of 
 Senatorial debate, and his august form make the steel drop from the nerveless arm of 
 the Congressional assassin." 
 
 While the foregoing address may be regarded as a model of genuine American 
 oratory, in which impassioned address is united with most lucid thought and 
 profoundest emotion, it is not the less valuable as a mournful prophecy of the terrible 
 calamities which overwhelmed the country before another decade had passed away — 
 calamities that were like the hurricane in destructive fury, and that like it levelled 
 with the dust institutions that were rotten at the core, and thus gave sunlight and 
 air to the younger and healthier growths that were struggling to establish their 
 supremacy. Judge Bradley's sympathies were with the right ; his succors always 
 extended to its relief and assistance. 
 
 Judge Bradley has represented his district in the National Democratic Conven- 
 tions on several occasions, and notably in the memorable one which was held at 
 Charleston in the year i860, in which the Democratic party was divided — the 
 extreme portion nominating Breckinridge for the Presidency, and Lane for the 
 Vice-Presidency. The moderate and Unionist wing of the party afterward convened 
 in the city of Baltimore — Judge Bradley being among them- — and there nominated 
 Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidential chair, and Herschel V. Johnson for the 
 Vice- Presidential. Of these candidates for the highest offices at the disposal of the 
 American people he was a firm but unsuccessful supporter. 
 
 In 1863 he accepted the Democratic nomination for Congress, but was defeated 
 at the polls by his distinguished competitor, Thomas Allen Jenckes. That the choice 
 between the two was made on grounds of public policy, and in no way for personal 
 reasons, was strikingly apparent in his election to the eminently honorable post of 
 
36 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Chief Justice of the State of Rhode Island by the State Legislature of 1866 
 The appointment was a flattering recognition of superior merit, and was all the 
 more complimentary in that it was bestowed by political opponents of the Democratic 
 party. Unanimously re-elected by the General Assembly of 1868, he felt obliged 
 by personal considerations to resign his position in order that he might resume 
 professional practice, and give that due degree of attention to business affairs that 
 the exacting character of his judicial duties imperatively forbade. 
 
 The Providence Journal, of January 23d, 1868, thus spoke in reference to his 
 retirement from the public service: "The resignation of the Hon. Charles S. Brad- 
 ley of the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was yesterday communi- 
 cated to the General Assembly, to take effect on the first Monday in March next. 
 Though not wholly unexpected, strong hopes were entertained that it would at least 
 be delayed. Its announcement is now received with great and universal regret. 
 Selected from the ranks of the profession which he had long adorned, he was placed 
 at the head of the Supreme Court as the successor of the late Chief Justice Ames, 
 in February, 1866, and his resignation, after so brief an interval, is prompted, as 
 would appear from the letter in which he communicates it, purely by personal con- 
 siderations which did not exist when he accepted the office. In these two years, 
 however, he has discharged the duties belonging to that high position with a success, 
 and, we may add, a judicial distinction, in which the people of the State feel both 
 satisfaction and pride, and which they had hoped he would long continue to illustrate 
 in a sphere so honorable and important. 
 
 " At the time of his appointment his political associations were with the party 
 opposed to that which was then, and is now, in power ; but his career upon the 
 bench has fully justified the selection which was made, and he has secured the respect 
 and confidence of all classes of citizens, not less by the uprightness and high-toned 
 independence than by the ability and dignity with which he has discharged his duties 
 as a judge. We only utter what we know is the general sentiment when we say 
 that his retirement from the bench at the present time will prove a serious public 
 loss to the State." 
 
 In 1866 Judge Bradley received the honorary distinction of LL.D. from Brown 
 University, and was also elected a Fellow of that excellent institution. In 1872 he 
 .was a delegate to the National Convention by which Horace Greeley was nominated 
 for the chief magistracy of the American people. For three years he officiated as 
 lecturer in the Law School of Harvard University, and was subsequently one of 
 the professors in the same institution. The committee appointed to visit the Law 
 School in 1879, when making their report, said: "We have suffered a great loss in 
 the resignation of Hon. Charles S. Bradley, whose lucid and practical teaching was 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 37 
 
 highly appreciated by the students, and whose national reputation added to the re- 
 nown of the school. We had hoped that some incidental advantage of quiet and 
 freedom from care might be found to outweigh other considerations, and that the 
 professorship was permanently filled. We deeply regret that we were mistaken in 
 this. It is still our hope that Judge Bradley's place may be permanently filled by 
 one who, like him, combines large experience and high reputation with technical skill 
 in teaching." 
 
 MITH, HEZEKIAH, D.D. Born on Long Island, New York, April 21st, 1737; 
 j™ died January 22d, 1805. Early in life he became a member of the Baptist 
 church, under the pastorate of the Rev. John Gano, in the city of New York. 
 '=■' His classical education was begun at Hopewell, N. J., in one of the ear- 
 liest academies established by the Baptists for the education of pious young men 
 for the ministry. From thence he entered Princeton College, then under the presi- 
 dency of the Rev. Samuel Davies, graduated therefrom in 1762, with the degree of 
 A.B., and received that of A.M. in 1765. 
 
 Leaving college with impaired* health, he endeavored to recuperate by a tour in 
 the Southern colonies, travelled upward of four thousand miles in a single year, and 
 formed many delightful friendships with congenial residents. Ordained at Charles- 
 ton, S. C, by ministers of the Charleston Association, he began his regular ministry by 
 supplying the pulpit of the Cashaway church, near the Pedee River, preaching at 
 the same time, as he was able, in other places with acceptability and usefulness. In 
 1764 he went to New England, and preached in several Congregational pulpits with 
 marked effect. At Haverhill the committee of the West Parish invited him to 
 preach in their vacant pulpit for a while. This he did with satisfaction to himself 
 and profit to the people. But they were not Baptists, and naturally desired the ser- 
 vices of one of their own faith and order, whom, after a few months, they instructed 
 the committee to procure. 
 
 Released from pastoral obligations, Mr. Smith now decided to return to New 
 Jersey, where several of his relatives resided. The day for his departure was" fixed, and 
 on the morning of its arrival several young persons, who had been led to Christ by 
 his instrumentality, called upon him, and, with warm expressions of Christian love, 
 
38 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 besought him to baptize them. Notwithstanding his fixed resolve to leave, they ven- 
 tured to express the conviction that he would return and again become their minister 
 He replied, " If I return, your prayers will bring me back." The same day he re- 
 paired to Boston, and on the day following continued his journey to Providence, 
 R. I. After he had ridden about eighteen or twenty miles, the words contained in 
 Isaiah 35 : 3, 4 were powerfully brought to his recollection. They read as follows : 
 " Strengthen then the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are 
 of fearful heart. Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even 
 God with a recompense. He will come and save you." Pausing for a while to 
 muse on the passage, he resumed his journey, but was again impressed by the same 
 words. Turning his horse about, he returned to Boston, and there found two of his 
 Haverhill friends, who had been sent after him to urge his return. Accepting the in- 
 vitation, he was received at Haverhill with warm expressions of affectionate gratitude. 
 
 The first text from which he preached in the place of his latest labors and suc- 
 cesses was : " Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for ; 
 I ask, therefore, for what intent ye have sent for me ?" The popular intent soon be- 
 came manifest in the erection of a meeting-house, -and the organization of the First 
 Baptist Church in Haverhill, of which he was the honored, beloved, and successful pas- 
 tor for the space of forty years. The date of the organization was May 9th, 1765, and 
 of Mr. Smith's pubHc recognition as pastor, November 12th, 1766. The ministers who 
 officiated on the latter occasion were the Rev. John Gano, of New York, Dr. Manning, 
 President of Brown University, and Dr. Stillman, of Boston. Correspondence with his 
 brethren in South Carolina was steadily maintained, and in connection with Oliver 
 Hart and Francis Pelot, of that State, he originated a society in Charleston, whose 
 object was to aid poor and pious young men in studying for the Christian ministry. 
 
 Mr. Smith was a man of one book and of one work. His devotion to the 
 spiritual vs^elfare of his church and congregation was exclusive. Great success crowned his 
 labors, and his church attained the commanding position and leading influence in the 
 community that it has retained to the present day. In 1776, at the outset of the 
 Revolutionary struggle, he accepted appointment to a chaplaincy in the American army, 
 and nobly fulfilled its duties for the space of four years. He won the confidence and 
 became the intimate friend of General Washington, and also possessed the esteem and 
 confidence of the entire army. His life was repeatedly risked on the field of battle, 
 where he was among the foremost in stimulating the courage of the soldiers, and 
 soothing the sorrows of the wounded and dying. Humble, holy, heroic, he refused 
 to compromise with evil in any shape or station, but boldly reproved vice and ap- 
 plauded virtue with a vigor and wisdom that concihated the respect of the most hard- 
 ened, while it awakened a sentiment of reverence akin to the feeling of fear. Con- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 39 
 
 secration to God and country, and untiring devotion to the best interests of the army, 
 invested him with commanding w^orth and influence. On the necessity of pure morals 
 and of simple dependence on the Divine arm for victory in the momentous war- 
 fare the patriot hosts were waging, he strenuously insisted. No sympathies, prayers, 
 or personal exertions within his power to extend were spared, but all his resources 
 were lavishly poured out to achieve success. 
 
 When the clouds of war cleared off, and sweet and blessed peace returned, Mr. 
 Smith joyously rejoined his family and resumed his local ministerial toil. Missionary 
 tours enlarged the area of his labors, and added to his signal and extensive usefulness. 
 As aa ardent friend of education, he strenuously assisted Dr. Manning in the establish- 
 ment of Brown University, and in laying the foundations of its future prosperity in 
 sufficient preliminary endowment. To obtain funds for its support he travelled, at 
 much personal sacrifice, through various parts of the country. He knew not how to 
 fail, and in this enterprise of love achieved his wonted triumphs. For forty years he 
 sustained the honor of being one of the Fellows of the University, and in 1797 
 received from it the honorable diploma of Doctor in Divinity. 
 
 Dr. Smith's pastoral term of service to the First Baptist Church in Haverhill was 
 protracted to the length of forty years, and was characterized by growing excellence 
 and effectiveness. Personal influence on those who approached him grew with his 
 years. Like many ministers of intense individuality, he dreaded the possibility of 
 outliving his usefulness. He rather preferred the experience desiderated by Charles 
 
 Wesley in the stanza : 
 
 " O that without a lingering groan, 
 I may the welcome word receive ; 
 My body with my charge lay down 
 
 And cease at once to work and live." 
 
 On the Lord's Day, January nth, 1805, he preached with unusual unction and 
 force from the text, John 12 : 24: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
 die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." A gracious revival 
 of religion followed. On the next Thursday he was smitten with paralysis, .lay speech- 
 less for a week, and then passed to his home in the celestial city. His ashes now re- 
 pose in the village cemetery at Haverhill. 
 
 Dr. Smith was a man of commanding presence, large and well-proportioned in 
 stature, inspiring respect by his dignity, and winning affection by his affability and 
 grace. His voice was of remarkable compass and power, and his genuine eloquence 
 aided his message in finding a way to the hearts of his hearers. His views of re- 
 vealed truth were of strictly evangelical character, and his preaching combined in due 
 and just proportions the doctrinal, the experimental, and the practical, The Rev. Dr. 
 
40 ,BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P^D I A . 
 
 Sprague states that he never wrote his sermons, and justly remarks that the life of his 
 ministry is among the treasured things belonging to memory and to God. 
 
 Dr. Smith was united in marriage, soon after his settlement in Haverhill, with 
 Miss Hepzibah Kimball, of Rowley, Mass. Of the four children who sprang from that 
 union, the first, Hezekiah, became a farmer, and died, prior to i860, in Northumberland, 
 N. H. ; the second, William, vi^as at one time engaged in maritime pursuits ; the third, 
 Jonathan Kimball, died in Newton, Mass., October, 1843, aged 68. The youngest, 
 Rebecca, became the wife of Thomas Wendall, of Boston, and died in the early part 
 of the present century. Mrs. Smith survived until the 9th of December, 1824. 
 
 ^■mAGGETT, DAVID, LL.D., of New Haven, Chief Justice of 
 flKlB Court of Connecticut. Born in Attleborough, Bristol County, . 
 
 the Supreme 
 Mass., Decem- 
 ber 31st, 1764; died at New Haven, April 12th, 185 1, in his eighty-seventh 
 ^ year. 
 Judge Daggett belonged to the Puritan stock of the New England Pilgrims, 
 and was the fifth in line of direct descent from John Daggett, who immigrated with 
 Winthrop's company in 1630, and settled at Watertown, Mass. Thomas, son of the 
 emigrant, John Daggett, removed to Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard, with Gov- 
 ernor Mayhew, in 1644. Married Hannah, the eldest daughter of that gentleman; 
 became a magistrate of the island, and died about the year i6go. His son. Deacon 
 John Daggett, removed with his four sons, about the year 1707, to Attleborough, 
 where he built and dwelt in what was styled a "garrison house," for protection 
 against the Indians. Three of the four sons of Deacon John Daggett have, for 
 many generations, been represented in New Haven by their descendants. Thomas 
 Daggett, Jr., fourth in Hneal descent from the first settler, and father of Judge 
 Daggett, was a man of vigorous intellect, excellent common-sense, decided religious 
 character, in full sympathy with the preaching of Whitefield, Edwards, Bellamy, and 
 the Tennents, and thoroughly trained his son in the principles of piety and virtue. 
 The nature of the son responded to the careful culture of the father, and in early 
 boyhood gave indications of future distinction. At twelve years of age " he was 
 selected by his venerable instructor and pastor to read the Declaration of Indepen- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 41 
 
 dence before a large assembly in his native town, the first time it was read there after 
 it was proclaimed by the American Congress." 
 
 When sixteen years old he entered the Junior class at Yale College — two years 
 in advance — and graduated in due course, and with high honors, in 1783, in the 
 same class with John Cotton Smith and other subsequently famous men. The 
 times were very troublous. His class entered in the year of General Tryon's invasion 
 of New Haven, and graduated almost simultaneously with the signature of the treaty 
 of peace between Great Britain and the United States. On taking his second or 
 Master's degree, he delivered an oration of such extraordinary merit that it received 
 the honor of pubhcation. Soon after graduation, in harmony with his strong, prefer- 
 ences, he began the study of law with Charles Chauncey, Esq., of New Haven, and 
 continued therein until January, 1786, a little more than two years. At the same 
 time he supported himself by discharging the duties of butler in college, and of 
 preceptor in the Hopkins Grammar School. Some months afterward he was chosen 
 to the office of tutor in Yale College, but declined to accept the post in view of 
 the pursuance of legal practice. He was admitted to the bar of New Haven County 
 at the age of twenty-one, and immediately began the active duties of his profession. 
 
 Mr. Daggett's political life commenced in 1791, when he was chosen to represent 
 the town of New Haven in the General Assembly. Thenceforward he was annu- 
 ally re-elected until 1797. The Rev. Dr. W. S. Dutton, from whose address at the 
 funeral of Judge Daggett we quote, remarks that, " Of the political parties which 
 grew out of the adoption of the [Federal] Constitution, he united, as did the great 
 .body of the people of New England at that time, with that which was called 
 Federal. Of this party, though he was not a mere partisan, but a true statesman, he 
 was a firm, consistent, and thorough supporter." In the Legislature of Connecticut, 
 and also in that of the United States, he was a sagacious and powerful advocate of 
 its general principles and policy. As its exponent he held what was almost equiva- 
 lent to the political control of his own State for many years ; and in the sub- 
 sequent disintegration of old parties and the crystallization of new ones, was neVer 
 reluctant to have it known that he belonged to the same school of politics with 
 Washington and Hamilton, Jay and Pickering, Adams and Ames, Ellsworth and 
 Sherman. Three years after he entered the House of Representatives, in 1794, he 
 was chosen to preside over it as Speaker. Though one of the youngest, he was 
 also one of the most influential of its members, and was re-elected, year after year, 
 until chosen a member of the Council, or Upper House, in 1797. The constitu- 
 tion of that body was very different from that of the present Senate. At the 
 autumnal election twenty of the ablest men in the State were chosen, without 
 regard to locality, and at the ensuing spring election the twelve owt of the twenty 
 
42 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 who had the highest number of votes were chosen to constitute the Senate. The 
 body thus created embraced much of the political wisdom, ability, and experience 
 of the State, and was unusually permanent in duration. Mr. Daggett retained his 
 seat in it until 1804, when he resigned. In 1805 he was again a member of the 
 Lower House, and in 1809 was once more chosen a member of the Upper House 
 of the General Assembly. In June, 181 1, he obtained the appointment of State's 
 Attorney for New Haven County, and held that office until his election to the 
 United States Senate, in 18 13, when he resigned it. In May of the same year 
 his previous four years' service in the Council closed, and he was sent as Senator 
 to the Congress of the United States for six years from the preceding 4th of 
 March. 
 
 At the close of his Senatorial term, in 1819, he returned to his extensive and 
 lucrative practice of law, and in November, 1824, became an associate instructor 
 in the Law School of New Haven, with Judge Hitchcock. In 1826 he was 
 appointed Kent Professor of Law in Yale College, and held both positions until 
 advanced age and increasing infirmity obliged him to relinquish them. As a teacher 
 of law he commanded the respect and veneration of the students by his great 
 legal abilities and experience, while he won their hearts by his courtesy, kindly 
 counsel, and generous helpfulness. When sixty-two years of age, in May, 1826, he 
 was appointed by a Legislature of opposed political principles and preferences an 
 Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the State. The appointment was a 
 proof at once of the patriotism of that body and of his superior mental, moral, 
 and legal quahfications. In the fall of 1826 the Corporation of Yale College 
 honored themselves and Judge Daggett by conferring upon him the honorary degree 
 of LL.D. During 1828 and 1829 he was Mayor of the city of New Haven, and 
 in May, 1832, was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. He 
 continued to exercise the functions of that dignitary until December 31st, 1834, 
 when, having reached the age of seventy, the limit assigned by the State Constitution 
 to judicial incumbency, he retired to less pubhc life. 
 
 In most aspects of his character Judge Daggett was a model worthy of imita- 
 tion. His punctuality was unfailing, his thoroughness and integrity in busmess 
 remarkable, his self-rehance and confidence of success the outgrowth of natural and 
 acquired abilities. " His quick and thorough insight, his well-balanced judgment and 
 strong common-sense, his quick and ready perception of fitness, his wit and humor, 
 his power of varied and felicitous illustration, his ready memory, his energy of feeling, 
 
 his concentration, his clear and nervous language, his practical knowledge of law 
 
 these, joined to his quahties of person and manner, . . . made him an advocate, 
 who, in his best days, had, on the whole, no superior, if he had an equal, at the bar 
 
I'li.lj-upiilil.fii |-i(lilj/,lLin;";;.';huiyii7Lu') '",a d 1'" 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y CLO PyED I A . 
 
 43 
 
 of Connecticut." He was a true and accomplished gentleman, a thorough student 
 of the Bible and of Shakespeare, a regular attendant on and a liberal supporter 
 of the Gospel ministry, "an enthusiast with regard to preaching," a conductor of 
 family worship from the year 1815, and a really religious man from 1832 onward. 
 In the latter year he joined the North Congregationalist Church, and died peace- 
 fully in its communion. The members of the New Haven bar and the Court of 
 Common Council adopted resolutions expressing eminent appreciation of his char- 
 acter and services, and the whole city, in some sense, paid its tribute of respect to 
 his memory. 
 
 In 1785 Mr. Daggett was married to Wealthy Ann, daughter of Dr. ^neas 
 Munson, of New Haven. She died in July, 1839, having borne her husband nine- 
 teen children, of whom only three survived him. In May, 1840, he was married, a 
 second time, to Mary, daughter of Major Lines. 
 
 JmURFEE, THOMAS, of Providence, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 
 ^ Rhode Island. Born in Tiverton, Newport County, R. I., February 6th, 1826. 
 
 His father. Job Durfee, was a native of the same place, and for many years 
 
 ^ held the highly important office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 
 Rhode Island. In that position he established an enviable reputation for distinguished 
 
 ability and legal learning. He died July 26th, 1847. 
 
 The mother of Judge Thomas Durfee, nee Judith Borden, of Fall River, Mass., 
 belonged to a family long and influentially identified with the manufacturing and 
 other interests of that prosperous city. Judge Durfee's scholastic career began in 
 the local institutions of Tiverton. At the age of fourteen he entered upon preparation 
 for college at East Greenwich, R. I., under the able tuition of Revs. James Richardson 
 and Nathan Williams. In the fall of 1842 he matriculated at Brown University, 
 and graduated therefrom in September, 1846. After that, — selecting the profession of 
 law, — he began and completed his preparatory studies in the office of Tillinghast & 
 Bradley, at Providence, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1848. In 1849 he 
 became the reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, and 
 discharged the duties of that functionary until 1854. In the latter year he was 
 elected, by the General Assembly, a member of the Court of Magistrates for the 
 city of Providence, and held the office, by annual re-election, for six years, during 
 all but one of which he was the presiding justice. 
 
 His life has been pre-eminently devoted to legal and judicial duties, which were 
 
44 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C L O F^D I A . 
 
 but briefly interrupted by election to the General Assembly in 1863. In the following 
 session — that of [863-4 — he officiated as Speaker of the House. In 1865 he was 
 elevated by the members of his own political organization, the Republican party, 
 to a seat in the State Senate. Service therein was unusually short. It only lasted 
 a week. At the end of that period he was chosen an Associate Justice of the 
 Supreme Court. Ten years later, in 1875, he succeeded to the position of Chief 
 Justice of the State, and entered upon his duties on the 6th of February in that 
 year, — being at the time exactly 49 years of age. 
 
 In the walks of literature, — professional and polite, — Judge Durfee is favorably 
 known. In 1857 he completed a treatise on Highways, which had been but little 
 more than begun by Joseph K. Angell. In 1872 appeared a small volume of verses 
 from his pen, entitled. The Village Picnic, and Other Poems, which was received 
 with commendation by competent critics. In 1877 he delivered an oration at the 
 dedication of the new court-house in Providence, which was subsequently published 
 by request of the General Assembly. The reminiscences of legal practitioners therein 
 contained are exceedingly graphic and interesting. Nor is his discussion of the 
 modern aspects of law procedures any less valuable. Increase of litigation, and the 
 more purely scientific nature of modern practice, have differentiated the forensic efforts 
 of modern lawyers from those of their predecessors of fifty, or even thirty years ago. 
 "The lawyer who has many cases to try must husband his powers. He cannot exert 
 them as prodigally as if he had but few. He therefore adopts a more simple and 
 business-like manner of speech. Again, it is not every case that admits of oratory. 
 Cases {for eloquence are cases which involve the primary interests, or appeal to the 
 primary feelings of mankind. It is when some personal or domestic right is violated, 
 or political privilege impugned, or historic principle invoked, or when the mystery of 
 crime awakes curiosity or appalls the conscience, or when a case abounds in reve- 
 lations of character or of striking contrasts and vicissitudes, that eloquence finds its 
 appropriate field, and safely essays its sublimest flights. But such cases are few, and 
 do not multiply with the progress of society. In our day the cases which chiefly 
 employ the courts grow out of the complexities of business, and relate to artificial or 
 conventional rights and duties, or to questions of negligence, or to pecuniary values, or 
 to interests in property, or to the more delicate demarcations of power and responsi- 
 bihty in business affairs. In such cases eloquence is of small avail ; but it is precision 
 of language, clearness of method, completeness of analysis, logical fertility and patness 
 of iUustration, flooding the argument with hght — not the chromatic splendor of the 
 imagination, but the dry, white light of the understanding — -which carries conviction 
 to the jury or persuades the court. Such an exhibition of intellectual power is more 
 fascinating often to the appreciative mind than eloquence itself; but it is not eloquence, 
 and it does not captivate the crowd." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 43 
 
 Judge Durfee's legal lore comprises much that is not contained in many a State 
 library. It includes a knowledge of the sources whence the principles and maxims 
 of legal jurisprudence have sprung. He delights in that "new light" which, "rising 
 in the dusky dawn of the primeval world, is just beginning to shine through the 
 lenses of history and archaeology into the obscurer provinces of the law. The study 
 of comparative jurisprudence is showing that there is in law, as there is in language, 
 a substratum common to the Aryan nations, pointing to their common origin, and so 
 imparting to the dryest and most crabbed of legal antiquities a truly human and 
 philosophic interest." 
 
 Judge Durfee is a trustee, and is also the chancellor, of Brown University, which 
 in 1875 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. The honor was wisely 
 bestowed. That it was the simple recognition of sterling merit was apparent at the 
 time ; nor is it less so in the light of the Providence Court-House address, in which 
 he insisted that " the crying need of the times is wisdom and ripe experience, 
 combined with disinterested patriotism, to enlighten public opinion. Where can we 
 look for them," he asks, " if not in the legal profession ? The accomplished lawyer 
 is by education nine tenths of a statesman. He has what, in the conglomerate of 
 races which constitutes the American people, so few have — a living sense of the 
 continuity of our civilization. He knows how it has broadened ' slowly down from 
 precedent to precedent.' He can trace through a thousand years the glorious lineage 
 of our liberties. He can follow the right of property back almost to it's origin. 
 He knows the steps by which it has been emancipated from feudal fetters. He 
 knows the sanctions by which its inviolability is secured. He can see how, pivoted 
 upon that inviolability, it has become the mainspring of modern progress. For him 
 to-day is but yesterday unfolding. He distrusts the bastard progress that cannot 
 find its pedigree in the past. . . . Having a 'mind of such prudence, such 
 knowledge, such various training and capability, he needs only preserve his probity 
 and patriotism, and keep himself conversant with the questions of the day, to be 
 the weightiest of public counsellors." 
 
 Judge Durfee was married, in October, 1857, to Sarah J. Slater, daughter of 
 John Slater, and grand-daughter of Samuel Slater, one of the great manufacturers 
 of Rhode Island. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 MES, SAMUEL, of Providence, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 Rhode Island. Born in Providence, September 6th, 1806. flis parents 
 were Samuel and Anne (Checkley) Ames, of the same city. The patro- 
 nymics of both indicate descent from the sound, sturdy Anglo-Saxon 
 stock of the mother country — a stock from which, both in Great Britain and the 
 United States, have come many gifted men, who, like Judge Ames, were the life 
 of their respective social circles, and also accomplished lawyers, eloquent orators, 
 erudite and incorruptible judges. 
 
 Young Ames pursued his earlier scholastic studies in the local Providence 
 institutions, and completed his preparation for college at Phillips Academy, in An- 
 dover, Mass. He then entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 
 1823, at the early age of seventeen. Among his classmates were William R. 
 Watson and Dr. Fearing, of Providence, Judge Mellen, of Massachusetts, and the 
 celebrated George D. Prentice, of the Louisville Journal. During his collegiate 
 career indications of future eminence were abundant and striking. His quick, 
 active mind intuitively discovered the relations of things. His powerful memor}^ 
 and vigorous reason made him a broad, accurate, and comprehensive scholar. 
 
 Selecting the profession of law after his graduation, he first pursued an ele- 
 mentary course of study under the auspices of General Samuel W. Bridgham, and 
 then completed his preparation for the bar at the celebrated Law School in Litch- 
 field, Conn. There, under the direction of the acute legal minds at the head of 
 the school, he acquired a sound knowledge of the principles of law, and also of 
 their practical application, which was of the greatest service as soon as he com- 
 menced practice. Admitted to the bar of Rhode Island, he at once took a 
 commanding' position among his compeers, some of whom were brilliant and su- 
 perior practitioners. 
 
 The entrance of Judge Ames, upon the duties of public political life, was 
 synchronous with the stirring agitations for the abrogation of the old colonial 
 charter, and. the substitution of a constitution suited to the necessities of the 
 commonwealth. He frequently appeared before the people in their public assem- 
 blies, was an ardent politician, and in all exciting campaigns was one of the most 
 effective speakers. He proved to be an excellent debater, basing his arguments 
 upon facts, and enforcing his opinions with sharp logic and winning eloquence. 
 His practice in the courts of the State and of the United States was extensive 
 and lucrative. In 1832 he was associated with the late Joseph K. Angell in the 
 preparation of a treatise on the Law of Corporations, which passed through seven 
 or more editions, the later being greatly enlarged and rewritten by Mr. Ames. It 
 is still a standard authority on the subject to which it relates. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 47 
 
 He was for many years a member of the General Assembly for the city of 
 Providence, and left the impress of his influence on the legislation of the period. 
 During the troubles of 1842 he held the office of Quartermaster-General of the 
 State. In 1855 he served on the Commission for Revising the Statutes of the State, 
 and in 1856 yielded to the earnest solicitations of the members of the bar, and of 
 other influential citizens of the State, and accepted the office of Chief Justice, to 
 which he was elected at the May session of the General Assembly. He was at the 
 same time made reporter to the court. The duties of his offices were discharged 
 with distinguished success. The decisions of the court, as reported by himself, in 
 four volumes, are remarkable for their clearness, their learning, and their conformity 
 to the settled principles of jurisprudence. 
 
 In 1 861 Chief Justice Ames was one of the delegates from Rhode Island to the 
 Peace Convention which was held in the city of Washington. There his learn- 
 ing, justice, patriotism were all in exercise to " devise some righteous method of 
 averting the calamities of rebellion and of civil war from the land, but, — as the 
 sequel proved, — without avail. In the autumn of 1864 his health began to fail 
 under the onerous labors he had imposed upon himself, and in November, 1865, 
 only a few weeks before his death, he resigned the office of Chief Justice, which 
 for nine years he had held with the highest credit to himself and the State. He 
 died of apoplexy, after an illness of two hours. 
 
 But few men, comparatively speaking, have left behind so precious and pleasant 
 a memory as Judge Ames. The Hon. Samuel Curry, who knew him intimately 
 for thirty years, said : " For a time, in the early part of our acquaintance, we 
 lived in the same family, lodged under the same roof, and ate at the same table. 
 In that circle he had no friend but me, I had none but him. We had our 
 early morning and our evening walks together ; and I take great pleasure in say- 
 ing here that I never enjoyed a friendship more dear or interesting to me in those 
 years than the friendship of Samuel Ames. My first impressions of his character, 
 as I now recollect them with many saddened feelings, were of his genial, exuberant 
 sociability, his vivacious and playful temper, and his great acquirements — literary, 
 scientific, and historic. He loved talk. There was no subject of general knowl- 
 edge that he did not love to pursue. I think I never knew a man, at the age of 
 thirty years, so well read in literature and history as the late Chief Justice was at 
 that age. He delighted in the best English classics, prose and poetry. He was 
 profoundly read in English history. He could tell you at any moment of the rise 
 and fall of the regal houses of England ; he could tell you of the rise of the 
 ducal and baronial houses of England, and he could tell one at any time all about 
 
48 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 the constitutional history of England. He had traced its progress through all the 
 storms of civil war in that country, and he understood it well." 
 
 Judge Ames was a man of remarkable industry in the pursuit of duty. There 
 was no labor from which he shrank. Whatever his hand found to do he did with 
 all his might. Excessive toil doubtless cut short the period of public service, which 
 only ended with life. Judge Bray ton said of him: "He was a man eminently 
 just. He desired to do his duty. He was a man of fearless independence, and 
 he wished not only to be so, but to appear to be so. I recollect that one 
 day, in a conversation with me — he looked sad that day — he said to me, ' I dont 
 know but I shall be obliged to resign this office.' To my inquiry as to the cause 
 of this apprehension, he answered, ' I have been obliged to exhaust my property 
 to pay off my debts. I don't know but it will take the last dollar. And I cannot 
 sit in court and compel another man to pay his debts when I cannot pay my 
 own.' He . had an earnest desire to do justice, and to administer justice, and took 
 a pleasure in being occupied upon the bench in its administration. In a conver- 
 sation with him upon this matter I said to him, ' I wonder that a man of your 
 standing at the bar should have assumed a place upon the bench, where your 
 emoluments will be so much less and your labor so much more ? ' ' My dear 
 sir,' said he, ' I never designed to continue at the bar all my days. If I con- 
 tinued practice to the age of fifty years, I did not design to continue it longer. I do 
 not like to be at the bar. I do not desire to be compelled to make an endeavor 
 to make the worse appear the better reason ; I wish to pursue the better reason ; that 
 is what I desire to do.' " That spirit was apparent in all his labors, and in all his 
 admirable judicial decisions. 
 
 Judge Ames's indefatigable industry was the theme of general remark. Gifted 
 with remarkable native powers, he delighted in their fullest exercise. He never 
 went half way into anything. " The limit of his labor in any matter was the limit 
 of what he could acquire or do in regard to it, nothing less." He was constantly 
 at his post, " in the deadly atmosphere of the court-room, for days and weeks and 
 months, conducting the trial of causes, resting never, till that frame of manly strength 
 and beauty, and that capacious brain, were laid a sacrifice upon the altar of public 
 duty." " As a speaker he had not the qualities usually admired by the popular 
 judgment in an orator or advocate, and in persuasive power over a jury he may 
 be thought to have been deficient. But in a firm grasp of his subject, in its 
 dexterous evolutions from embarrassing details, his steady reference to principles as 
 guides, and in the constant exhibition of a belief in what he asked his heai-ers to 
 believe, he had a power scarcely inferior, even in its effects." The weight of per- 
 sonal character added very much to the force of his arguments. As " a man of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 49 
 
 unsullied honor, of profound learning, and of a most enlightened understanding" — 
 characteristics of Sir John Holt, one of the greatest of English judges — it could 
 scarcely have been otherwise. " As a writer," remarked the Providence Journal of 
 December 23d, 1865, " he handled a vigorous and easy pen. If not master of 
 the graces of style, the topics upon which he usually wrote were so thoroughly 
 understood, and the uses to which he sought to apply them so clearly defined 
 in his own mind, that his writings were never without point and weight ; and 
 their influence is no small proof of their ability, when we remember the men 
 with whom, in this department, he was necessarily compared. When dealing with 
 professional subjects, his style was excellent, clear in statement and forcible in 
 application, covering the ground completely, and with as much conciseness as was 
 permitted by the nature of the work." 
 
 In political life Chief Justice Ames was " an active, but an open and trans- 
 parent leader." The Providence Daily Post, of December, 22d, 1865, said of him, that 
 " his friends and his foes alike knew where to find him. There was with him no 
 trimming, no prevarication, no subterfuge ; he was satisfied with his own judgment, 
 and never doubted the correctness either of his own conclusions or his ability so 
 to present his views as to convince others." " As a legislator, men found him a 
 vigilant guardian of what he felt to be the true interests of the State; a bold 
 and well-armed champion of all that he undertook to defend ; an open and unflinch- 
 ing assailant of what he felt called to attack. He has left the impress of his 
 mind and training upon the statute-book of the State." 
 
 " In his practice as a lawyer, and in his debates as a legislator," said the 
 Hon. W. W. Hoppin, " he wielded rather the battle-axe of Richard the Lion-Hearted 
 than the keen and noiseless cutting cimeter of Saladin." In legal practice, " his 
 thorough acquaintance with the law, great industry, perfect integrity, and an 
 unswerving opposition to fraud in all forms, led him steadily up to the heights of 
 his profession, and left him, with the wiUing assent of his brethren, a leader of the 
 bar." "He loved the law," Judge Greene testified ; " and no man was ever an able 
 lawyer, or an able judge, who did not love the law. He loved the study of it, 
 he loved the practice of it at the bar, he loved the administration of it upon the 
 bench ; and I have often heard him say that the trial of nisi prius cases as they 
 came before him" was one of the most pleasing occupations of his life." One 
 interesting case, tried before the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, is well remem- 
 bered as illustrative of his profound and exact learning, comprehensive intellect, and 
 acute and wise legal discrimination. It involved the consideration of an abstruse 
 chapter in the history of the common law. Mr. Ames, who appeared for the 
 complainants in a bill in equity, asked the court to put a construction upon some 
 
 4 
 
so BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 provisions of a will, and attempted the task of sketching the history of a rule of 
 law which, in its adoption and enforcement, seemed to be opposed to the first 
 principles of justice. In a most masterly manner he showed the origin of the rule, 
 and the reason for its adoption. Commencing with the cases in the time of Edward 
 II., he glanced at the more important causes down to the year 1798, giving a 
 succinct account of each. Few lawyers could have made a question so dry and 
 technical in itself so interesting, even to the common mind. After giving the 
 history of the law, he showed the reasons for the enactment of our statute, which 
 has practically abrogated it, and contended that the will in question should be 
 construed in the light of this statute. No lawyer in New England could have 
 brought to the discussion of such a subject a mind more full of knowledge ger- 
 mane to it, or could have made himself more thoroughly understood by the 
 court. 
 
 But it is as a judge that Chief Justice Ames will be longest and most 
 admiringly remembered. " His decisions have elicited the praise of able judges in 
 other States, receiving the rarer compliment of imitation. They have given the 
 bench of Rhode Island a position and influence outside of the State, which the 
 character of the questions alone would not effect." " These decisions," continues the 
 Providence Jottrnal, " were seldom rendered without labor, and never without careful 
 thought ; and at times they demanded for their utterance and subsequent defence, 
 qualities even higher; a courage of the first order, and a firmness that nothing but 
 conviction could beget. The well-known case of Taylor vs. Place was one of these. 
 It was a case small it itself — in substance, whether a garnishee should be permitted 
 to have a new trial in a case where adverse judgment had been rendered upon 
 affidavits made under mistake — but in its scope, it was as great as any that Holt 
 ever tried, and struck at the foundations not only of our judiciary, but of the 
 Constitution and of free government itself. It was of incalculable importance that just 
 such a judge as the late Chief Justice should have presided at that trial, and have 
 reared the beacon in his luminous opinion, which will shed its warning and guiding 
 lightj through the co-ordinate departments of our government, while they endure. 
 The real parties were -the legislative and judicial departments of the State, and the 
 legislative was the assailant. It needed courage that man could not shake ; learning 
 and philosophy and enlightened freedom that could not be obscured; independence, 
 that power and hostility could not make waver a hair's-breath ; and calmness and 
 moderation which could not be disturbed, to make that opinion, what was needed 
 and what it is. In building this bulwark for our real liberties, the Chief Justice was 
 unconsciously erecting a monument for himself; and when the citizens of this State, 
 in the future, shall recall, as they will, the peril in which the judiciary, the people and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 51 
 
 the Constitution were placed, they will gladly recognize the imprint of the courage, 
 learning, and wisdom which Judge Ames left there in their defence." 
 
 Such a man, from the very constitution and qualities of his nature, must 
 necessarily be intolerant of tricks, evasions, and mere dexterity divorced from moral 
 and legal principles. There were times when he seemed to be harsh and abrupt, but 
 his righteous indignation never ruffled the springs of justice by a breath, or moved 
 the beam of her scales by one hair's width. "Mr. Attorney," said he to Colonel 
 Rogers in the Post-office on the day before his death, " if I have ever spoken harshly 
 to you or to any member of the bar ; if I have ever injured your or their feelings, 
 I hope you and they will not lay it to heart, but will forget it ; for I only meant to 
 do my duty; and, although I know for a year ortwo I have been more in the habit 
 of saying harsh things than perhaps I ought to have been, laboring as I was from 
 disease, yet I know that you will never think of it. And I beg you to assure any 
 gentleman, if any one should ever think that I have said anything harsh to him, that 
 it was not meant, and beg him to forget it." 
 
 The Rhode Island bar, by public and unanimous resolution, found in him " the 
 chief qualities that make the good judge — ready, ample, and well-digested learning, 
 quickness of apprehension, grasp of comprehension, acute power of analysis, great 
 logical power, sound judgment, clearness of exposition, and signal skill in applying 
 the principles and formulas of the law to the new and ever-changing affairs of life 
 and business ; that these mental characteristics were interwoven with corresponding 
 moral qualities — an inflexible love of truth and justice, unflinching integrity, patient 
 and untiring industry, fearless courage in the discharge of duty, promptness of 
 decision, indifference to popular clamor or popular applause, and while at all times 
 diligent and careful in forming his opinions, and earnest and forcible in their 
 expression, yet ever ready to acknowledge an error or rectify a mistake." Governor 
 McDowell, of Virginia, said of him to a coterie of Southern gentlemen in Washington : 
 " I have been listening for the last two or three days to a young man from Rhode 
 Island. lie knows more law than all the judges in the Supreme Court. He knows 
 ^11 the law from Domesday Book] [to the present time, and has it all by heart ; and 
 he can talk like a Virginian." The unstinted praise of the generous Southerner was 
 in itself a prophecy of Mr. Ames's future judicial pre-eminence. 
 
 Judge Ames was married to Mary Throop, daughter of Sullivan Dorr, of Provi- 
 dence, who, with five children, survived her distinguished husband. Of those children, 
 one. Lieutenant S. D. Ames, was executive officer of the Colorado, attached to the 
 Mediterranean Squadron, at the time of his father's death ; another was Colonel 
 William Ames, of the Third Rhode Island Artillery, who served with distinguished 
 honor in the Department of the South. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 ^ARK, JOHN DUANE,— Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut,— 
 of Norwich, Conn. Born in Preston, Conn., on the 26th of April, 1819. His 
 father, Benjamin Franklin Park, was a native of the same town, and a mer- 
 chant and farmer by occupation. His mother, nee Hannah Avery, was the 
 daughter of David Avery, who was a farmer, and also a native of " the land of steady 
 habits." 
 
 The early education of Judge Park was received in the public schools of his native 
 town, and was followed by a thorough course of instruction in the celebrated academy 
 at Wilbraham, Mass. Leaving school just as he entered upon his majority, he began 
 independent life as a teacher, and continued in the exercise of that vocation for the 
 next few years, during which period he was also preparing himself by diligent study of 
 the principles and practice of the law for the pursuit of its profession in the civil and 
 criminal courts of the State. In 1844 he entered the law-office of Edward Perkins, of 
 Norwich, Conn., and afterward studied under the direction of the Hon. Lafayette S. 
 Foster, then United States Senator, and subsequently Judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 In 1847 he was admitted to the bar, at the age of twenty-eight, and commenced 
 practice in Norwich. In 1S54 he was elected County Judge, and served in that ca- 
 pacity for one year. Then the County Court was abolished, and its business trans- 
 ferred to the Superior Court of the State. In 1855 he was elected to the Legislature 
 by the Republican party in Norwich, and while a member of that body served in 
 the Committee on New Towns and Probate Districts, and also on several other 
 standing committees. During the session a change in the judicial system of the com- 
 monwealth was eflFected, and Mr. Park received the appointment of Judge of the 
 Superior Court from the Legislature. The Constitution of the State was also modi- 
 fied in the same year, extending the official incumbency of judges of the Supreme 
 and Superior Courts to eight years. In 1863 he was re-elected, and in 1864 was 
 raised by^the Legislature to the bench of the Supreme Court. This position he filled 
 with signal ability and gratifying success until 1873, when the same body made him 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, in succession to Origen S. Sey- 
 mour. He entered upon his new duties in February, 1874, with the prospect, all being 
 well, of eight years' consecutive service. 
 
 While a member of the bar in Fairfield County, Judge Park enjoyed an extensive 
 civil and criminal practice. His devotion to professional pursuits and judicial functions 
 has been apparently exclusive, or only slightly interrupted by brief service as one of 
 the directors of the Merchants' Bank in Norwich. 
 
 In July, 1862, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma Allen, of Middleboro, 
 ■Vermont. 
 
K!",---nrjo'[[hxoT'\iJj[iiiiiviq i^^JF.nqmvini] Oo I\[ / 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. S3 
 
 •ILLIAMS, THOMAS SCOTT, of Hartford, late Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of Connecticut. Born at Wethersfield, June 26th, 1777, 
 His father, Ezekiel Williams, held many prominent civil and military- 
 offices during the American Revolution. He was generally called 
 " Sheriff Williams," because he held the shrievalty for many years. He was also 
 deacon of the Congregational Church at Wethersfield, during a large portion of his 
 adult life, and was long remembered as a most excellent, though eccentric man. 
 
 The ancestry of Judge Williams was honorable and pious, and of the sturdy, 
 enterprising stamp which has placed the Anglo-Saxon race in the vanguard of 
 human progress. Robert Williams, his first American progenitor, came to this 
 country in 1638, and settled in Roxbury, Mass. He had four sons who survived 
 him. Of these, Isaac was born in the year of his father's arrival, and at " maturity" 
 removed to Newton, Mass., which town he represented in the General Court for 
 five or six years. He also filled other offices, both civil and military. His son 
 William was an eminent Congregationalist divine, and pastor of the church at 
 Hatfield for about fifty-six years. President Edwards and Dr. Chauncy united in 
 ascribing to him the highest qualities of mind and heart. Solomon, his son, sur- 
 passed his father in clerical celebrity, bore the title of Doctor of Divinity, and was 
 pastor of the Congregational Church in Lebanon, Conn., for fifty-four years. He 
 was the grandfather of Chief Justice T. S. Williams, who, on the mother's side, 
 was great-grandson of the celebrated Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Mass. 
 Judge Williams was the tenth in a family of eleven children, and was the 
 survivor of them all. In childhood he enjoyed all the advantages of thorough 
 religious training. A Scotch lady of high intelligence, and devoted piety, resided 
 in his father's family, and for the first nine years of his life took almost the entire 
 charge of him. Her instruction, example, and prayers did much to mould his 
 character, and give direction to his energies. With her, he read Rollin's Ancient 
 History, and other books. His youth was remarkably free from faults and follies. 
 His brother said of him : " Thomas was like Jeremiah, sanctified from the womb." 
 Study was always a pleasure to him— an occupation in which he needed restraint 
 rather than urging. While quite young, he was placed under th'e tuition of Mr. Azel 
 Backus, afterward a distinguished divine, and President of Hamilton College, New 
 York, who, on returning him to his father, significantly remarked that if care were 
 not taken, the boy would break his traces. The traces, or rather the physical 
 and mental forces, were tougher than the tutor supposed, and withstood the strain of 
 self-denying study for very many years. At the premature age of thirteen he en- 
 tered college, and graduated at seventeen. To this he often referred with expressions 
 of regret. Notwithstanding, habits of study and of patient application were formed, 
 
54 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 which constituted the basis for his subsequent professional eminence as lawyer and 
 judge. Obstacles of course confronted him, but they were always overcome by his 
 disciplined ability. He early learned the measure of his own powers, never sought a 
 position beyond his reach, and was never deterred by any seeming difficulty in the 
 way of attaining it. Choosing the profession of law, he pursued the study of it 
 in the Law School at Litchfield, Conn., and subsequently under the direction of Chief 
 Justice Swift, at Windham, Conn. Judge Reeve said to one of his friends: "Young 
 Williams is the best scholar I have ever sent from Litchfield." 
 
 His forensic life began at Mansfield, Conn., in 1798, while yet only twenty- 
 one years of age. Youth and diffidence made his maiden efforts at the bar very 
 trying. His first plea was in a Windham County court. He removed to Hart- 
 ford in 1803, ^"d found there a field adapted to the development of his resources, 
 and yielding satisfactory remuneration to his toil. He gave himself wholly to his 
 profession. Singleness of aim and application was one of the great secrets of his 
 success. The bar of the State presented a shining array of learning and ability. 
 Mr. Williams modestly took his place amid the throng, and by his .unflinching 
 integrity, extensive legal attainments, and acknowledged power, acquired the confi- 
 dence of court and jury to an uncommon degree, and became a most successful 
 advocate. An eminent lawyer, . resident in Hartford, who practiced at the Hart- 
 ford County bar, prior to the elevation of Mr. Williams to the bench, and who 
 knew him intimately, stated that while his mastery of words and power of illustra- 
 tion were imperfect, his pleading unadorned by the graces of a finished elocution, 
 and unaided by wit and humor, clients were glad to employ, and juries were glad 
 to hear him. The reasons were, his thorough understanding of the legal profession, 
 his exhaustive preparation of the case at issue, his quick appreciation of the bear- 
 ing of facts, ready knowledge of men, faithfulness to his clients, faculty of making 
 his client's case his own while speaking to a jury, and of throwing his whole soul 
 into his argument. The last was one of the main secrets of his strength. Always 
 ingenious and often exhaustive, his words— at times — were admirably selected, and 
 " at times his elocution was very impressive. He was thoroughly in earnest" 
 The uprightness and dignity of his life increased his power as an advocate. Never 
 supercilious or overbearing, he was perfectly fearless in upholding the rights of his 
 clients. His outward life was singularly blameless. His character, like an immov- 
 able buttress, stood behind his argument. He attached great importance to the 
 service performed by the bar in the administration of justice, and held that the 
 careful argumentation of cases was of great value in securing wise decisions. Yet 
 he was opposed to needless litigation on principle. " Very often in his early, as well 
 as later public life, he induced his clients, and their opponents, to settle their differ- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 55 
 
 ences between themselves, and thus avoid the trouble and expense of lav^^suits." 
 Had he been a professing Christian at this period of his career, he afterward 
 thought that high Christian principle would have modified his practice in some 
 particulars. 
 
 Mr. Williams was appointed judge in 1829, and in 1834 was raised to the high 
 dignity of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. In this exalted 
 judicial position he served with universal acceptance, never soiling his official ermine 
 nor disappointing the high expectations of his many admiring friends. Peculiarly fitted 
 for his position by a very unusual combination of qualifications, and thoroughly under- 
 standing that the law, as a practical science, could not take notice of melting lines, 
 nice discriminations, and evanescent quantities, he allowed metaphysical refinements 
 and hair-splitting distinctions to have but little influence with him. In his decisions 
 he was exceedingly impartial ; always looking at the case, and not at the parties. He 
 had no "respect of persons" in judgment. John Hooker, reporter of the Supreme 
 Court of Connecticut, testified that "Judge Williams was distinguished, when on the 
 bench, as . a judge of great decision, of vigorous and comprehensive mind, and of. 
 great moral excellence. His perfect integrity, and his intrepid assertion of his views 
 of right, commanded the highest confidence of the community, while the determinations 
 of his intellect were regarded as almost infallible. His knowledge of law was not so 
 much the fruit of constant or extensive reading as of a thorough study of a few ele- 
 mentary books, and the mastery of elementary principles. He seemed to have an 
 almost intuitive perception of the merits of a case, and of the principle which was to be 
 its solvent. He united great modesty and quietness of manner with the utmost firmness. 
 His mind was eminently safe in its operations, as he was never led astray by any 
 false lights from the imagination. He looked wholly at the reality of a thing, and 
 was never disturbed by the gloss which it wore. With all this matter-of-fact habit of 
 mind, and this absence of imagination, he had yet a most genial disposition, and one 
 of the kindest of hearts. His sympathies were warm and active and wide-reaching." 
 Compared with Chief Justice Storrs, he was dissimilar in almost every intellectual 
 point, and yet equally great and distinguished as a jurist. " He generally spoke and 
 wrote in a condensed and vigorous Saxon, with little regard to the balance of his 
 sentences, or the grace of his periods." He " saw whatever he was looking after 
 without seeming to search for it, the nearer and the remoter all coming before his 
 mind alike, as obvious truths which it was a matter of course for everybody to 
 see." He '■ found everything so plain before him that he was never excited by any 
 consciousness of great intellectual effort. Judge Williams came to his conclusions by 
 a single step, and with something like intuition, and looked about afterward for 
 his reasons ; less to satisfy his own mind than to convince his associates on the 
 
S6 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^D I A . 
 
 bench, or the public in his written opinions. He never permitted considerations of 
 policy to enter his mind, which was so practical and so honest " that even without 
 the control of his high moral qualities it could hardly have gone astray." His 
 quiet firmness approached very closely to sternness. He never knew what self- 
 indulgence was, and worked through the allotted hours with no thought of his own 
 case. With judicial integrity, he was '' scrupulously careful to hold the balance with an 
 even hand, uninfluenced by any and every outside or irrelevant consideration." His exten- 
 sive legal acquisitions, habit of patient research, large forensic experience, quickness of 
 apprehension, native kindness and urbanity, unaffected simplicity and sincerity, Roman 
 love of justice, calm and inflexible firmness, all invested with the robe of a quiet, 
 consistent, watchful piety, refining and elevating his entire character, made him a 
 Judge of the rarest excellence. In this estimate of his official qualities the entire 
 Hartford bar unanimously concurred, and by resolution declared that they afforded 
 " an imperishable example to the living, to guide them in the sure paths to honor 
 and happiness, and to a successful and well-spent life." 
 
 The great secret of his eminent success is doubtless most clearly revealed in 
 his private diary, the entries in which show how he regarded his official responsi- 
 bilities. In 1842 he wrote: "I do much need wisdom to guide me in affairs so 
 important to my fellow men. I would desire with Solomon : ' Give to thy servant 
 an understanding heart to judge this people, that I may discern between good and 
 bad ; I am but a little child : I know not how to go out or to come in.' I 
 know I need aid from above, to keep me from all the temptations arising from 
 friendship or from prejudice. I think I may say that I have conscientiously avoided 
 all such inducements, and kept in view the great day of account, when the judges 
 of the earth are to be weighed in the balance of eternal justice, when the secrets 
 of all hearts will be manifest." In May, 1847, he thought proper to resign his 
 situation, after " having been upon the bench for eighteen years without having failed 
 for a single day," except for a short time on one occasion, to discharge his duties 
 on the bench on account of ill-health. He had the enviable consciousness of having 
 discharged all duty with diligence, impartiality, and according to his best ability. 
 " That mistakes intervened there can be no doubt ; but," he adds, " I think I can 
 say I endeavored to keep a conscience void of offence toward God and toward 
 man." Simple, truthful, just, persistent, and drawing constant supplies of strength 
 from an Infinite source. Judge Williams was one of the grandest incarnations of 
 legal justice that a land so prolific in great men has ever presented to the admiration 
 and emulation of mankind. 
 
 Although pre-eminently a righteous judge, he did not refuse to serve his city 
 and country in other capacities wherein he could be useful. In the technical sense 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 57 
 
 of the word he was not a politician. His pastor, who knew and appreciated him 
 thoroughly, said : " As a citizen, a civilian, a statesman, a patriot, he was firm and 
 decided in his views and sentiments ; adhering inflexibly to what he beheved to be 
 true and right ; but he was no partisan, no wily politician or bigoted opposer of all 
 who differed from him in opinion. "He was a member of the Legislature of Con- 
 necticut in the years 1815, 1816, 1819, 1825, 1827, and 1829, and was a Representative 
 in Congress from 181 7 to 181 9. He brought to all these positions the qualities both 
 of mind and heart, which made him an able and faithful legislator, as well as a safe 
 and competent adviser." 
 
 It is with comparative infrequency that distinguished members of the bench and 
 bar are noted for intelligent, consistent, beneficent godliness. Some of the most con- 
 spicuous, like Judge Hubbard of Massachusetts, Theodore Frelinghuysen of New 
 Jersey, Judge Bissell, and Roger M. Sherman of Connecticut, have left fragrant 
 memories behind them, and charmed while they blessed the world in public life. 
 Judge Williams was a notable illustration of genuine Christianity in high social and 
 legal position. He made a public profession of religion, and united with the Church 
 after a season of powerful revival in 1834. Thenceforward his church life was in 
 harmony with his estabhshed character. " His religion was more of principle than of 
 emotion; more of a steady, set purpose to do what was right, and pleasing to God 
 and useful to his fellow men than of mere impulse and feeling." Prior to his 
 public avowal of discipleship to Christ, ' he prayed in his family, and asked a 
 blessing upon his table. He was scrupulously exact in the observance of the 
 Sabbath, attending punctually the services of the sanctuary, and reading religious 
 books in the intervals of public worship. He abhorred that which was evil, and 
 loved that which was good." Calvinistic in theological belief, he passively waited 
 for the grace of salvation, until in 1834, under the preaching of the Rev. Dr. 
 Taylor, he was induced actively to accept it. His piety was the expansion of a 
 life-long habitude : " a child's piety, sweet, graceful, unconscious, full of tenderness, and 
 believing earnestness, such as children only feel." 
 
 In 1836, two years after his union with the Church, he was elected one of its 
 deacons, and subsequently performed the duties of his office with propriety, dignity, 
 and conscientious fidelity ; to the honor of religion and the prosperity of his Church. 
 His ministries of kindness, of counsel and charity m private, were many and fre- 
 quent. The poor long remembered him as a kind and generous benefactor. The 
 last service he ever performed in the church was to assist in bearing ihe symbols 
 of the Saviour's love to his fellow-worshippers. He entered the Church of God to 
 become a laborious and efficient co-worker with its members. " For more than a 
 quarter of a gentury he was from Sabbath to Sabbath at the head of his Bible- 
 
58 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 class, thoroughly prepared by previous study to impart to its members the rich treas- 
 ures of God's word and of his own well-stored mind." " Like his noble compeer, 
 Mr. Frelinghuysen, who esteemed his position as a Bible-class teacher to be far 
 above that of a Senator in Congress, so Chief Justice Williams tenaciously held and 
 ably filled his position as teacher to the very last, barred by no statute of limita- 
 tion on account of his age, as he was retired from the bench, nor deterred by any 
 increasing infirmities as years bore him nearer to his final rest." 
 
 He was an early and firm friend of the temperance cause, a co-operator with its 
 advocates, and was among the first to visit the reforming and the reformed inebriates 
 during the Washingtonian movement, and to encourage them in their resurrection to 
 life and usefulness. An exceedingly benevolent man, he gave judiciously and gener- 
 ously in private, and always bore his part in founding and sustaining the humane, 
 the benevolent and educational institutions of Hartford. But his charities took a 
 much wider range than that of civic or State locality. He was for a long time 
 Vice-President of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and 
 at the time of his decease was President of the American Tract Society of New 
 York. His sympathies were wholly with the heart, mind, and mission of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. "I thank God," said he, in 1842, "that He has put it 
 into my power to .do so much, and hope it may be productive of good, especially 
 that which was intended to spread the light of truth among the heathen. I cannot 
 now go among them myself, but I can enable some efficient man to do so, while I 
 am sitting at home surrounded with so many comforts." He always gave to general 
 and special objects on principle, and kept a strict account of his charities and ordinary 
 family expenses, in parallel columns. The former shows an excess of fifty per cent 
 over the latter during the last nine years of his life. He frequently assisted young 
 men by donations, or loans, or both, to a promising start in fife. In domestic mis- 
 sions and in theological schools he seemed to be almost equally interested, believing 
 that the influence of all the good young men of the West was wanted " to counteract 
 infidelity, indifference, and ignorance, which ordinarily accompany our newer settle- 
 ments ; while at the East we need men of great learning to meet the more insidious 
 attacks of the scientific doubter." 
 
 His last sickness was brief, his mind perfectly clear, and his acute sufferings 
 comparatively slight. " I am wonderfully favored," he gratefully remarked. " I trust 
 solely in the atonement and justifying righteousness of Jesus Christ." Not only his 
 pastor, but other friends, deemed that, " taken all in all, he was the most perfect 
 Christian man" they had ever known. 
 
 Judge Williams was twice married. First in 181 2, January 7th, to Deha, daugh- 
 ter of Oliver Ellsworth, of Windsor, Conn., who was Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 59 
 
 Court of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of American states- 
 men and lawyers. Mrs. Williams died June 25th, 1840; and on November ist, 1842, 
 Judge Williams was married to Martha M. Coit of Boston, daughter of Elisha 
 Coit of New York City. Neither union was fruitful of children, but his house was 
 often vocal with the merriment of little ones, in whose society he found exquisite 
 pleasure. When his friend, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, heard of his death, she responded 
 to the informant In lines of singular beauty and pathos, and concluded with the 
 
 sentences : 
 
 " 'Twere impiety 
 To let the harp of praise in silence lie, 
 We who beheld so beautiful a life 
 Complete its perfect circle. Praise to Him 
 Who gave him power in Christ's dear name to pass 
 Unharm'd the dangerous citadel of time; 
 Unsullied, o'er its countless snares to rise 
 From earthly care, to rest — from war, to peace — 
 From chance and change, to everlasting bliss. 
 Give praise to God." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 ^^ RANGER, MILES T., of Canaan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
 " p of Connecticut. Born in New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Mass., 
 ^^ August i2th, 1817. His father, James L. Granger, was a native of the same 
 State, and followed the occupations of farmer and mechanic. His mother, 
 nee Abigail Tobey, was a native of Canaan, Conn. His early education was received 
 in the excellent district school of the neighborhood, and was succeeded by fifteen 
 months' instruction in the once-famous seminary at Amenia, Dutchess County, New 
 York. 
 
 The towering pines of western New England, rising from rocky soil, and 
 attaining maximum altitude under all apparent disadvantages, are the fitting symbols 
 of numerous youths who, from unpromising surroundings, and amid hardships that 
 would have crushed less hardy spirits, have acquired sturdy and symmetrical develop- 
 ment, and have risen to commanding social and professional eminence. Among 
 these admirable examples. Judge Granger is one of the most unblemished, excellent, 
 and highly respected. From Amenia he repaired to Middletown, Conn., and there 
 matriculated at the Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1842. In 
 the year following he migrated to Louisiana, and accepted the position of private 
 tutor in the family of a planter. While engaged in teaching, he also began the study 
 of law, and acquired such proficiency therein that in April, 1845, he was admitted to 
 the bar in Wilkinson County, Miss. New England, however, proved to have greater 
 attractions than the sunny South ; and, in June of the same year, he returned to 
 Canaan, Conn., entered the office of Leman Church, familiarized himself with the code 
 and practice of Connecticut, and in October, 1845, was admitted to the bar in 
 Litchfield. Thenceforward, until 1847, he was associated in practice with Mr. Church. 
 In the latter year he opened a law office on individual account, and successfully 
 prosecuted professional practice until 1867, when he was elected to the bench of the 
 Superior Court. In 1857 Judge Granger served in the lower house of the State 
 Legislature, to which he had been elected on the Democratic ticket. In 1866 he 
 was chosen the State Senator from the Seventeenth Senatorial District, and was again 
 elected to the same office in 1867. For a i?umber of years he also officiated as 
 Judge of Probate for the Canaan district, and discharged the responsible duties of 
 that position, as he has uniformly discharged the duties of various minor official 
 trusts, with diligence, ability, and acceptance. The general esteem in which he is held 
 was expressed in his re-election to the justiciary of the Superior Court in 1875; 
 and the popular estimate of his eminent fitness for high judicial functions in his 
 election to the bench of the Supreme Court, as the successor of Judge Foster, on 
 November i6th, 1876, for a term of eight years. 
 
 Judge Granger was married in 1846 to Caroline S. Ferguson, of Sheffield, Mass. 
 
') I 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EJVCyCLOP.^I>IA. 6i 
 
 ^^UOOMIS, DWIGHT, of Rockville, Associate Judge of the Supreme Court 
 1^- of Connecticut. Born July 27th, 1821, at Columbia, Tolland County, Conn. 
 
 His father, Elam Loomis, was a native of the same place, and was occupied 
 in agricultural pursuits ; but in early life had taught school in the South. 
 His mother, n^e Mary Pinneo, was a native of Hanover, New Hampshire, and a 
 descendant from French ancestors. On the paternal side, he is lineally descended 
 from Joseph Loomis, who immigrated, in company with a colony from England, to 
 the New World in the year 1638, and settled at Windsor, Conn., in 1639. 
 
 The academic education of young Loomis was obtained at Munson and at 
 Amherst, in Massachusetts. After his graduation from those institutions, he became 
 a teacher in Andover, Columbia, Lebanon, and Hebron, Conn., successively. Natural 
 inclination and aptitude then conspired to induce him to enter upon the study of 
 law, which he did in the spring of 1844, in the office of J. H. Brockway, at 
 Ellington, Tolland County. Thence he repaired to the Yale Law School at New 
 Haven, pursued successfully the ordinary curriculum, and completed his prepara- 
 tions for professional practice in 1847. I'^ March of the same year, after his 
 graduation, he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office at Rockville._ In the 
 autumn following he contracted a business copartnership with his old preceptor, J. 
 H. Brockway, under the style and title of Brockway & Loomis. The firm pros- 
 pered until 1855, in April of which year it was dissolved. 
 
 Politically, Judge Loomis is associated with the Republican party. His public 
 career began in 1851, with his election, on the Whig ticket, to the lower house 
 of the State Legislature, in which he served a single term. Subsequent to the 
 dissolution of partnership with Mr. Brockway, he associated himself in legal practice 
 with B. H. Bill, and maintained the connection until June, 1858. In 1857 he was 
 elected to the State Senate by the Republican party, and served a single term in 
 that body, acting as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the two houses. In 
 the spring of 1859 Ke was elected to the National House of Representatives from 
 the First Congressional District, consisting of Hartford and Tolland counties ; and 
 was re-elected in 1861. The epoch was a critical one. The fate of free institutions 
 depended largely on the legislative wisdom of their exponents and public defenders. 
 The emergency demanded the ablest and most disciplined talent the country afforded 
 to prepare measures in harmony with the national welfare, and conducive to success 
 the life-and-death conflict then raging with the rending, destructive forces of slavery 
 and secession. To the beneficent and glorious results attained by long years of 
 lavish expenditure and sanguinary warfare. Judge Loomis powerfully contributed. 
 While in Congress he officiated as member and chairman of the Committee or. 
 Expenditures in the Treasury Department. He was also a member of the Com- 
 
62 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 mittee on Agriculture, and of the very important Committee on Elections. The 
 relations of the rebellious States to the National Union were abnormal and perplex- 
 ing. The suffering, loyal citizens of those communities were entitled to representation 
 in the Congressional councils, and measures were to be devised that should pave 
 the way for the resumption of constitutional and permanent place in the body 
 politic. Much of the work done was necessarily tentative ; but it was well done, 
 and suggested methods by which all difficulties were ultimately overcome, and all 
 energies prospectively and partially united in accomplishing the tasks assigned to 
 the National Legislature. 
 
 In the spring of 1864 Mr. Loomis was elected to the justiciary of the Superior 
 Court for a term of eight years; and in 1872 was re-elected to the same office for 
 another term. This he held until the spring of 1875, when, by the unanimous 
 vote of the members of both houses of the Legislature, he was elected Associate 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors, which office he still retains. 
 
 Judge Loomis was married on the 26th of November, 1848, to Mary E. Bill, 
 who died June ist, 1864. He was again married, on the 28th of May, .1866, to 
 Jennie E. Kendall, who died March 6th, 1876. 
 
 §^ARPENTER, ELISHA, of Hartford, Judge of the Supreme Court of Con- 
 necticut. Born in Ashford (that part of it which is now Eastford), 
 Windham Co., Conn., January 14th, 1824. His parents, Uriah B. and Marcia 
 (Scarborough) Carpenter, were both natives of the same place. His father 
 died in the month of October, 1872, after having been the head of a family for 
 nearly sixty years ; a fact sufficiently remarkable in itself, but equalled in rarity by 
 the further fact that his death was the first that had occurred in his own indi- 
 vidual family, which consisted of a wife and eight children — all of whom are still 
 living. 
 
 The iirst American ancestor of Judge Carpenter bore the name of William 
 Carpenter, and emigrated to this country in 1642, accompanied by three sons, 
 who settled in Attleboro, Swansey, and Rehoboth, Mass. On both sides the house 
 he is descended from good old English stock. In common with the overwhelm- 
 ing majority of American youth, he began his education in the excellent public 
 schools, and made such progress in the acquisition of knowledge, and in the further 
 
i-^^ 
 
 
 •.li^jufan lVi)U.:\n:xj ,i EiiLjnr.inq CjVL 
 
BiOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 63 
 
 power to impart it to others, that he became fully qualified to act as school 
 teacher himself, at the age of sixteen. This he did for several consecutive years. 
 Higher social aims than those of the worthy rural pedagogue actuated him in the 
 later stages of his educational experience; and, yielding to their power, he also 
 diligently read law. Next he entered, as law student, the office of Jonathan R. 
 Welch, Brooklyn, Conn., and on the completion of his preparatory studies was 
 admitted to the bar in Windham County, in December, 1846. Thenceforward, until 
 1861, he practised law in the same county. 
 
 Mr. Carpenter soon proved himself to be an able, competent, and successful prac- 
 titioner ; but did not permit himself to be so thoroughly engrossed by legal matters 
 as to have little or no time for political affairs. In 1857-8 he was a member of the 
 State Senate, to which he had been elected on the Republican ticket. In the session 
 of 1857 he served as chairman of the Committee on Incorporations, and in that of 
 1858 as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He also acted as President, pro 
 tempore, of the Senate. From 1854 to 1861 he held the position and discharged 
 the duties of Prosecuting Attorney of Windham County. In the legislative session 
 of 186 1 he served as representative of the town of Killingly, in the lower branch of 
 the State Legislature, and officiated as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. 
 His duties as such were of an extremely important character, in view of the fact 
 that the armies of the Union were then coming into repeated and sanguinary con- 
 flict with the adherents of slavery and secession. 
 
 Judicial characteristics and aptitudes, added to legal qualifications, dictated Mr. 
 Carpenter's election to the bench of the Superior Court of the State in i85i. 
 To that elevated position he added dignity, while he occupied it with marked 
 abihty for four years. In 1865 he was appointed to the justiciary of the Supreme 
 Court, of which body he is still a member. The exacting demands made upon 
 judicial officers preclude much attention to matters not strictly germane to the legal 
 profession. Judge Carpenter, however, has found time to make himself felt as a 
 member of the State Board of Education since its organization in 1865, although 
 the pressure of the claims upon him prevents his bestowing all the time upon its 
 plans and operations that he would otherwise give. 
 
 Judge Carpenter was married in 1848 to Harriet G. Brown, of Brooklyn, Conn., 
 and a niece of the Rev. Dr. John Brown of Boston. Mrs. Carpenter died in 
 1874; and in 1876 the Judge was again married, to Sophia T. Cowen, granddaughter 
 of the late Judge Cowen of the Supreme Court of New York. 
 
64 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 i:^ HIPMAN, NATHANIEL, of Hartford, Judge of the United States District 
 Court for Connecticut. Born in Southbury, New Haven County, Connecticut, 
 
 W ... 
 
 i* same State, and was an excellent Congregationalist divine. His mother, nee 
 
 Mary T. Deming, was also born in Connecticut. 
 
 Judge Shipman received his preliminary education in the academies at Norwich 
 and Plainfield, then matriculated at Yale College in 1844, and graduated .with the class 
 of 1848. Choosing to identify himself with the members of the legal profession, 
 he commenced the study of law under the tuition of Thomas B. Osborne, in Fairfield 
 County, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1850. Selecting Hartford as the 
 seat of practice, he associated himself with H. K. W. Welch in legal business, under 
 the firm-title of Welch & Shipman, and continued in that relation until the death of 
 his partner in 1870. 
 
 In 1857 Judge Shipman served one term in the lower house of the State 
 Legislature, to which he had been elected by the Republican party. From 1858 to 
 1 86 1 he was the executive secretary of the noble and patriotic Governor Bucking- 
 ham. On May ist, 1873, his talents and services received fitting recognition in his 
 appointment as Judge of the United States District Court for Connecticut — a 
 position he still retains. The office itself is of national character, and is identified 
 with that peculiar duplex judicial system which differentiates the United States civil 
 polity from that of all other nations. This duplex judicial system corresponds with 
 our duplex political system, under which has been established a national government 
 for national purposes — for duties of common concernment to all the States — and a 
 government by States for objects of purely local interest. In like manner, "by the 
 constitutions and laws of the States the people have created courts adequate to the 
 administration of justice in all matters intrusted to the States. By the national 
 Constitution they have created a Supreme Court of the United States, clothed with 
 power to try originally certain controversies of high political importance, and also, 
 what is of more general interest, to review and correct the decisions of subordinate 
 courts. ' By acts of Congress they have created, for the ordinary administration of 
 justice throughout the States in controversies coming within the national jurisdiction, 
 a system of district and circuit courts. The controversies intrusted to the national 
 tribunals— omitting to mention some of rare occurrence — are of three kinds: cases 
 arising under any law of the United States ; cases of admiralty jurisdiction, that is, 
 arising at sea, or immediately connected with maritime matters ; and cases between 
 citizens of different States." 
 
 " These judges hold United States Circuit and District Courts at designated places, 
 throughout the States, systematic provision having been made for court-rooms, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.E D I A . 65 
 
 clerks, marshals, and records, wholly independent of State legislation or control ; so 
 that everywhere individuals concerned in controversies depending on national laws 
 or arising upon matters of maritime origin, or in which citizens of one State are 
 pitted against those of another, may seek justice in a court of the Union, free, by 
 its creation and surroundings, and by all its precedents and traditions, from any 
 undue influence or bias arising from differences among the States." Vide Abbott's 
 American yiirisprudence. The functions of the United States District Court judges 
 — as well as those of the higher courts — demand ripe learning, comprehensive knowledge, 
 catholic spirit, uncommon fairness and impartiality, and an independency of spirit 
 that reveals no affinities in discord with concrete justice. The appointment to such 
 a dignified office implies appreciation of no mean order. 
 
 Judge Shipman was married on the 25th of May, 1859, to Mary C. Robinson 
 of Hartford. 
 
 iflJlANFORD, EDWARD ISAAC, LL.B., of New Haven, Senior Judge of the 
 Superior Court of Connecticut. Born m New Haven, July 4th, 1826. His 
 father, Elihu Sanford, removed thither in childhood from Woodbridge, 
 if subsequently entered into the West India trade from New Haven, conducted 
 an extensive business, amassed a considerable fortune, and died in 1866. His paternal 
 grandfather, Elihu Sanford, was a native of Woodbridge, Conn., and was occupied by 
 agricultural pursuits. Elihu Sanford, his great-grandfather, was also a native of 
 Connecticut. His mother, nee Lucinda Howell, was the daughter of Leverett and 
 Lucinda Howell of New Haven. 
 
 Primarily educated at private schools in his native city, young Sanford graduated 
 from them to Fairfield Academy, in which he passed four years — from the age of 
 ten to that of fourteen. Thence he repaired to the celebrated Hopkins Grammar 
 School at New Haven, and prepared for matriculation at Yale College. Entering 
 that institution in 1843, he graduated from it with the class of 1847. Electing the 
 profession of law, he next entered the office of Henry White, a prominent con- 
 veyancer in New Haven, prosecuted his studies under the direction of that gentleman, 
 and also received a full course of instruction in the Law Department of Yale 
 University. 
 
 On the I St of January, 1849, Mr. Sanford was admitted to the bar, and opened 
 S 
 
66 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 his office in New Haven, where he successfully practised the duties of his profession 
 for twelve years — until his election to the office of County Judge in 1861. For four 
 years he exercised the functions of that position with distinguished ability and 
 acceptance. In the legislative sessions of 1864-5 Judge Sanford served as a member 
 of the State Senate, to which he had been chosen by the suffrages of the Republican 
 citizens. In 1867 he was elevated to a seat on the bench of the Superior Court, 
 and has since held it with dignity and beneficence to the present hour. 
 
 Judge Sanford was married on the 19th of June, 1849, ^o Sarah J., daughter 
 of Hanford Lyon, of Bridgeport, Conn. One daughter and one son constitute the 
 issue of the union. 
 
 EARDSLEY, SIDNEY BURR, of Bridgeport, Justice of the Superior Court 
 of Connecticut. Born in Monroe, Fairfield County, Conn., August 20th, 
 1822. His father, Cyrus H. Beardsley, was a lawyer, and for a number of 
 years held the office of County Judge. He also represented his district in 
 both branches of the Legislature, and in 1846 was Speaker of the House. Politi- 
 cally, he was identified with the Democratic party. He graduated at Yale College 
 in 1 818, and died at Fairfield, Conn., in 1852, in the fifty -third year of his age. 
 The mother of Judge Beardsley, nee Maria Burr, was the daughter of Timothy 
 Burr, of Hartford, Conn., a merchant by vocation, who died in 1799, aged about 47 
 years. Mrs. Beardsley still survives, and spends her advanced life in the town of 
 Fairfield. 
 
 The Hartford branch of the Burr family, with which Judge Beardsley is mater- 
 nally connected, is descended from Benjamin Burr, an original settler of Hartford, 
 in 1635, who was in Massachusetts for some time before his migration to Con- 
 necticut, and who may have been one of the eight hundred who came to America 
 with Winthrop's fleet, in June, 1630. Although an active, energetic, and thorough 
 business man, he seems to have taken but little part in public affairs, and therefore 
 does not figure prominently in colonial records. He was the first of his name in 
 Connecticut, was admitted a freeman in 1638, received an allotment of land in 1643, 
 and another in 1666. Thrifty and prosperous, he acquired additional property in 
 the village, and also houses and lands at Greenfield and in Windsor. He gave his 
 name to one of the city streets, and died at Hartford, March 31st, 1681. His 
 
^, fW^^-^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 67 
 
 memory, together with that of other primal settlers of Hartford, is preserved by the 
 monument erected in the cemetery of the Central Congregational Church; but the 
 fittest memorial of himself and associates, of their genius and energy, is the city 
 itself a city around which cluster the most venerable associations; a city which is 
 the mother of cities and communities, and the social, financial, and political capital 
 of the State. 
 
 Benjamin Burr and his wife Annie were the parents of four children, of whom 
 Thomas, the second, was born January 26th, 1645, in Hartford. He, in turn, became 
 the father of twelve children, of whom Moses, the fourth, was born in January, 
 1 715. He married Eliza King, by whom he had seven children, was a successful 
 business man, and left a large estate. He died January 13th, 1792. Timothy Burr, 
 the father of Mrs. Beardsley, was his eldest son. 
 
 Judge Beardsley matriculated in Yale College in 1838, and at the close of his 
 collegiate career commenced the study of law under the direction of the late David 
 C. Sanford, of New Milford, who was afterward Judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Connecticut. At a later period he studied in the law office of Reuben Booth at 
 Dan bury. 
 
 Admitted to the bar of Fairfield County in 1843, he immediately began prac- 
 tice at Norwalk, and continued therein until 1846, when he removed to Bridgeport, 
 where his pursuits were purely professional until his elevation to the judicial bench, 
 in June, 1874. His official life in political relations has been limited to one year 
 as Judge of Probate, to which he was appointed by the State Legislature while a 
 resident of Norwalk, in 1845, and to one year's term of service in the State Senate, 
 to which he was elected by the Republican party of his district in 1858. During 
 the latter term he served as chairman of the Committee on Banks, and also of 
 that on Federal Relations. In 1869 he was a candidate for Congress in the Fourth 
 District, in competition with William H. Barnum. That district was then a Demo- 
 cratic stronghold, and preferred Mr. Barnum. Its political character has since 
 somewhat changed — partly through Judge Beardsley's efforts — and were the old 
 opponents again arrayed against each other, the issue would probably be different, 
 inasmuch as the district is now Republican. 
 
 Judge Beardsley was married in June, 1846, to Anna Eliza, daughter of William 
 Daskam of Norwalk. Five children, of whom one son and two daughters are now 
 living, were the fruit of their union. 
 
68 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 *OVEY, JAMES A., of Norwich, a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecti- 
 cut. Born in Hampton, Windham County, Connecticut, April 29th, 18 15. 
 L» His father, Jonathan Hovey, was a native of the same town, and was 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 On both sides of his parentage. Judge Hovey is descended from the best blood 
 of Europe. The Hovey family is derived from a gentleman who emigrated to this 
 country from the Hague, the capital of the Netherlands. His mother, nee Patience 
 Stedman, was a native of his own town, and identified by ancestry with the sturdy 
 Puritans who illustrated in Europe and America, as the Dutch Calvinists did in 
 Holland, the virtues of invincible love of liberty and incorruptible patriotism. 
 
 The education of young Hovey was acquired in the common and select schools 
 of the neighborhood in which he was reared, and also under the supervision of a 
 private tutor. Electing the legal profession for the exercise of his mature activities, 
 he commenced the study of its history, principles, and practice on the 4th of July, 
 1836, in the office of C. F. Cleaveland, at Hampton; and was admitted to the bar 
 of Windham County, in December, 1838. For the ensuing two years, he practised 
 legally in the town of Windham, and in the spring of 1841 removed to Norwich. 
 There, during the eight years following, he was associated in practice with his 
 preceptor, under the firm-title of Cleaveland & Hovey. . In 1842-3 he acted as 
 private secretary to his partner, who held the office of Governor of the State 
 throughout that period. In 1850 he received the appointment of Judge of the 
 County Court, of New London County, and discharged its duties for four years; at 
 the end of which term he resumed private practice. In 1859 he was elected to 
 the lower branch of the Legislature, by the Democratic party in the town of 
 Norwich. That election was exceedingly complimentary, inasmuch as it involved the 
 consent and co-operation of political opponents — Judge Hovey being the only 
 Democrat who has been elected to the Legislature from that district since 1837 
 to the present time. In 1870 he was chosen to the mayoralty of the city. In 
 1876 he was elevated to a seat on the bench of the Superior Court, and still 
 retains its incumbency. 
 
 In December, 1844, Judge Hovey was married to Lavinia J. Barber, of Simsbury, 
 Connecticut. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 69 
 
 |OTTER, ELISHA R., of Kingston, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of Rhode Island. Born in Kingston, R. I., June 20th, 181 1. Judge Potter 
 is one link in a chain of eminent men who have borne his patronymic. 
 His father, Elisha R. Potter, was a native of Kingston, a man of unusual 
 ability, and a member of the National Congress in 1799 and 181 2. E. R. Potter, Sr., 
 died in Kingston on the 26th of September, 1838. The Potter family in the mother 
 country is also honored by representatives in Parliament, who wield an influence in 
 its councils proportioned to their weight in the manufacturing and commercial 
 interests of Great Britain. The mother of Judge Potter, nie Mary Manney, was a 
 lady of French extraction, although a native of Rhode Island. 
 
 Young Potter entered Harvard College in 1826, and graduated from it in 1830. 
 Thence he passed to competent legal tuition, and in October, 1832, was admitted to 
 the bar. Settling in his native town, he has confined professional practice chiefly to 
 it and its vicinage. Like the majority of cultured and public-spirited lawyers, he has 
 rendered considerable and efficient service in the legislative halls of the country. 
 In the General Assembly of Rhode Island he has served through several sessions. 
 In 1835 and 1836 he held the post of Adjutant-General of the State. From 1843 
 to 1845 he represented his district in the Congress of the United States. Not less 
 influential for local good was his official action as Commissioner of Public Schools 
 for the State from Mav, 1849, to October, 1854 — the date of his resignation. In 
 March, 1868, Judge Potter accepted his election to the supreme justiciary of the 
 State, and has discharged the duties pertaining to his elevated position with the same 
 dignity, thoroughness, and efficiency that have characterized his private practice. 
 
 Judge Potter is a zealous historical student, and by his numerous publications 
 has established a claim to the gratitude of future Bancrofts and Macaulays, and 
 through them of Christendom, inasmuch as his compositions are of the kind that 
 they most highly prized in the construction of their monumental works. The follow- 
 ing is a list of his productions: i. Early History of Narragansett ; with an Appendix 
 of Original Documents. Providence, 1835; 8vo, pp. 315. Also published in R. I. Hist. 
 Coll. vol. iii. Commended by Dr. Usher Parsons. See Hist. Mag., 1863, 44, n. 2. 
 2. A Brief Accotmt of the Emissions of Paper Money, made by the Colony of 
 Rhode Island. 1837; 8vo. 3. Considerations on the Q^iestion^of the Adoption of the 
 Constitution and the Extension of Stiffrage in Rhode Island. Boston, 1842 ; 8vo, 
 pp. 64. 4. Address before the Rhode Island Historical Society, February 19th, 1851. 
 Providence, 1851; 8vo. 5. Report on the Condition and Improvement of the Public 
 Schools of Rhode Island, January, 1852'; 8vo. 6. The Bible and Prayer in Common 
 Schools, 1854. 8vo. 7. Reports and Documents npon Public Schools and Education in 
 the State of Rhode Island, etc. 8vo, pp. 700. For other publications, see J. R. 
 
70 .BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 Bartlett's Bibliog. of Rhode Island, 1864, 203-209; Circuit Court of the United 
 States, Mass. District, in Equity, W. B. Lawrence vs. R. H. Dana, Jr., et als. Boston, 
 1867; r. 8vo, pp. 147-262 (Deposition of E. R. Potter). 
 
 Judge Potter's valuable essay on the Rhode Island colonial emissions of paper 
 money was reprinted in Phillips's Historical Sketch of the Paper Currency of the 
 Ainerican Colonies. A new edition, by Sidney S. Rider, was published at Providence 
 in 1879. It contains large additions and illustrations. 8. In the same year was issued 
 the Memoir Concerning the French Settlements in the Colony of Rhode Island, by 
 Elisha R. Potter; Providence, Sidney S. Rider, 1879— being No. 5 of Rider's Rhode 
 Island Historical Tracts — 4to ; pp. 138. 
 
 URGES, WALTER SNOW, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 -i|ll^|L Rhode Island. Born September loth, 1808, in Rochester, Plymouth County, 
 '^ Mass. His father, Abraham Burges, and also his grandfather, John Burges, 
 ^ were natives of the same place, and followed agricultural pursuits. His 
 mother, n^e Rhoda Caswell, was the daughter of Elijah Caswell, and a native of 
 the same county. 
 
 Young Burges was educated in the district schools of his native town until 
 he attained the age of seventeen years, when he entered the old academy at Sand- 
 wich, then under the charge of Prof Luther Lincoln. When fully prepared for 
 college, yielding to the suggestions of his uncle (the late Hon. Tristram Burges, 
 formerly a professor in Brown University and subsequently, for ten years a dis- 
 tinguished member of Congress from Rhode Island) he entered that institution in 
 1827, and graduated therefrom with honor in 1831. He then accepted the charge of 
 Thaxter Academy, at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, and taught for three or four 
 consecutive years. 
 
 During this period he engaged more or less in legal studies, and afterward 
 completed his preparation for the bar in the office of Judge Thomas Burges at 
 Providence. In 1835 he was admitted to the ranks of the legal profession by the 
 Supreme Court, to practice in all the courts of the State of Rhode Island, and 
 discharged the duties pertaining to its practice until his elevation to the judicial 
 bench in 1868, where he has continued to this date, and taken little if any part 
 in mere political contentions. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. -j-l 
 
 The political affiliations of Judge Burges continued from early manhood to the 
 year 1840 in harmony with the Federal, National Republican, and Whig designations 
 of party politics. In that and the following year complaints had become louder, 
 more general, and persistent against the government under the charter of Charles II., 
 in 1663, and rapidly assumed organized forms of proceeding. What was wanted 
 was a written constitution, notably providing for an extension of the elective fran- 
 chise, not limited, as before, to freeholders and their oldest sons, and an equalization 
 of the Legislature among the various towns, and setting aside the arbitrary appor- 
 tionment of the charter, now come to be enormously disproportioned and unjust. 
 
 The old Legislature, of course, would extend no countenance, assent, or 
 authority to any movements of this kind. The Constitutional or Suffrage party, as 
 then called, claimed the right to act without their consent, preserving all the forms 
 of proceeding as nearly as possible to which they had been accustomed. 
 
 They called a State convention. They framed and submitted to the people a 
 written constitution. It was in due time voted on, and soon after by procla- 
 mation declared to have been adopted by a large majority of the people qualified 
 to vote under it. At an election soon after held the usual State officers and 
 a legislature were duly voted into place, according to the provisions of the new con- 
 stitution. Then followed an attempt to establish and enforce the constitution by a 
 military demonstration. The attempt wholly failed, and was eflFectually suppressed by 
 the strong resistance it encountered from the State, assisted by the General Govern- 
 ment. Another constitution, however, was adopted at about this time, promoted by 
 the old Legislature itself, and far more liberal in regard to the elective franchise 
 and the equalization of representation. This Constitution now remains, with its sub- 
 sequent amendments, as the highest law of the State. 
 
 With these proceedings, and the reforms sought to be realized from them, the 
 Judge, though always expressing a warm, sympathizing interest, yet never took much 
 active and decisive part. 
 
 In 1845 he was appointed United States District- Attorney under the administra- 
 tion of President Polk, and was removed by his successor four years later. He served 
 the State occasionally in one or the other branch of the Legislature, and was elected 
 Attorney-General in 1851, and re-elected in 1852, '53, and '54, and again in i860 
 -'61, '62, and '63. 
 
 Judge Burges was married on the ist of June, 1836, to Eleanor, daughter of 
 the Hon. James Burrill of Providence, who was a member of the United States 
 Senate at the time of his death, in 1820. Mrs. Burges died in Providence on 
 May 2ist, 1865. The issue of their union consists of three daughters — Cornelia A., 
 now Mrs. Arnold Green ; Sarah Elizabeth, now Mrs. Charles Morris Smith, and 
 Theodora F. Burges, all now living. 
 
72 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.E D I A. 
 
 % 
 
 ^TINESS, JOHN H., of Providence, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 pli^ Rhode Island. Born in Providence, August 9th, 1840. His father, Philip 
 '^^^ B. Stiness, of Marblehead, Mass., was a manufacturer, and a citizen of public 
 spirit, who served in the General Assembly of that State. The Stiness 
 family is of English origin. The peculiar orthography of the patronymic, as written 
 by the American branch, distinguishes the latter from the parent stock, which retains 
 the ancient form of Staines. 
 
 After due academic preparation, young Stiness entered Brown University in 
 September, 1857; remained therein for two years, and then engaged in school teach- 
 ing at North Providence, now the Tenth Ward of the city of Providence. Here 
 he held the position of principal of a grammar school for two years. His pur- 
 pose to return to college and complete the usual course of study was relinquished 
 at the outbreak of the Great Rebellion. Prompt to obey the call of his imperilled 
 country, he accepted a commission as second lieutenant in the Second New York 
 Artillery. In that relation he rendered efficient service up to November, 1862, 
 when he was obliged by illness to resign. The period of his campaigning was not 
 one of the most cheerful and encouraging in the history of the struggle. His 
 experiences were mainly confined to the forts near Fairfax, Va., and to the second 
 disastrous battle of Bull Run. 
 
 The contests of the ensanguined field were to be exchanged for the peaceful 
 but not less exciting engagements of the forum. In January, 1863, he began a 
 course of legal study in the office of Thurston & Ripley of Providence, completed 
 it in due time, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1865. From that time 
 onward to October, 1874, he prosecuted professional practice alone, but at the latter 
 date entered into partnership relations with L. M. Cook. 
 
 Naturally and properly, Mr. Stiness was called upon to serve in the Leo-islature 
 of Rhode Island. In April, 1874, he was sent thither by the Republican party, 
 and served one term, during which he was a member of the Judiciary Committee. 
 In the same session he introduced the resolution for the erection of the new court- 
 house, and ably advocated its passage. He afterward succeeded to the place of 
 Dr. Sheppard in the Committee on Construction, after the decease of that o-entle- 
 man in May, 1877. His legislative career was also distinguished by his drafting 
 the bill for the admission of North Providence into the civic corporation of Provi- 
 dence. In April, 1875, he was elected an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. 
 
 Judge Stiness was married on the 19th of November, 1868, to Maria E.Williams 
 of Rhode Island. 
 
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENC YCLOPJiDI A. 
 
 73 
 
 'ATTESON, CHARLES, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode 
 Island. Born in Coventry, Kent County, R. I., March 21st, 1840. His 
 father, Asahel Matteson, is a merchant by occupation, and has served his 
 constituents at Coventry in the State Senate for several different terms. 
 Politically, he is identified with the Republican party. The mother of Judge Matteson 
 was Julia M., daughter of Uzal Johnson, a native of Lyme, Connecticut. 
 
 The early education of young Matteson was received in a select school at 
 Providence, taught by Miss Phillips, When five years of age his family removed to 
 Centerville, in the town of Norwich. There he attended the district school for about 
 four years, until the family removed again to Coventry. Afterward he became a 
 student in the Providence Conference Seminary — now called the Greenwich Academy — 
 at Greenwich, R. I., and remained there for several years. His next step was to enter 
 his father's store — -that of a general country merchant — -at Coventry, as clerk. Two 
 years of dilligent and effective service in that capacity gave him a practical 
 acquaintance with business, and constituted not the least valuable part of his 
 preparation for future legal and judicial duties. Leaving mercantile pursuits, he 
 re-entered the Greenwich Academy, studied there for a brief period, and then, in 
 January, 1856, entered the University Grammar School at Providence, where he 
 perfected preparation for matriculating at Brown University in September, 1857. 
 At college he bore the reputation of being a close student, and graduated with 
 credit to himself and the institution, as A.B., in 1861. 
 
 Selecting the profession of law, Mr. Matteson next placed himself under instruc- 
 tion in the law office of Wingate Hays, Esq., then United States District-Attorney 
 for Providence, and continued there about twelve months, reading law and preparing 
 himself for a thorough course of tuition in the Harvard Law School. This he 
 subsequently received, and in January, 1864, was admitted to the bar. Beginning 
 professional practice in Providence, he prosecuted his duties on individual account 
 until 1865, when he and his old preceptor associated themselves as a law-firm under 
 the title of Hays & Matteson. The partnership lasted until the ist of July, 1871, 
 on which day it was dissolved, and Mr. Matteson resumed individual practice, which 
 he pursued until his appointment to the justiciary of the State in January, 1875. 
 The oath of office was taken in the following month, and Judge Matteson assumed 
 the exercises of his new functions forthwith. 
 
 While in the local practice of his profession, Judge Matteson was the attorney 
 for many corporations, and served as director and trustee of different corporate 
 institutions in Rhode Island. As a judge his rulings and decisions bear the impress 
 of entire impartiality, and harmonize at once with the spirit and letter of the law. 
 
 Judge Matteson was married on the asd of August, 1872, to Belle, daughter 
 of Paul Hines, Esq., a manufacturer resident at Warwick, Rhode Island. 
 
BIOGRAPHI-CAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 'INOR, WILLIAM THOMAS, of Stamford, ex-Governor of Connecticut. 
 Born at Stamford, Fairfield County, Conn., October 3d, 181 5. His parents 
 were Simeon Hinman and Catharine (Lockvvood) Minor, of Greenwich, 
 in the same State. His first American ancestor was Thomas Minor, who 
 emigrated from England in the company of John Winthrop. Arriving at Stonington 
 about the year 1646, he afterward settled, with his fellow-colonists, at Pequot in 1647. 
 The earliest historic ancestor of the Minors in England was a loyal subject of King 
 Edward III, named BuUman, who lived on the Mendippe Hills in Somersetshire, 
 and who followed the occupation of a miner. About a.d. 1350, while the sovereign 
 was on his way to France, Bullman provided him with an escort, and received 
 grateful recognition of his services in the change of his surname to Miner or Minor, 
 and in the bestowment of an appropriate coat of arms. 
 
 Governor Minor, who was the second son of his parents, entered Yale College at 
 fourteen years of age, and graduated from it with the class of 1834. The class con- 
 tained several members who rose to distinction in professional and other walks of life. 
 Among them were Henry C. Kingsley, the present treasurer of the university, the 
 late Rev. William I. Budington, D.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., the Hon. J. W. Houston, 
 one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of Delaware, and E. K.. Foster, 
 a leading citizen of New' Haven, and for many years State's Attorney for New 
 Haven County. 
 
 Much of what the youthful graduate had learned in school and college he suc- 
 cessfully imparted to his pupils as a teacher, and found in that pursuit an excellent 
 preparation for future professional and political life. His aptitude for the latter was 
 apparent to his fellow-townsmen, who invited him to deliver the oration on the 
 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence before he had attained his majority. 
 During the five years of his experience as teacher in his native town, he began the 
 study of law under the guidance of his father, who was one of the principal legal 
 practitioners in Fairfield County. Admitted to the bar in 1S41, he commenced 
 practice in Stamford, and successfully prosecuted its duties until July, 1864, when he 
 was appointed Consul-General at Havana by President Lincoln. 
 
 His political career began in April, 1841, with his election by the citizens of 
 Stamford to represent them in the lower house of the Connecticut Legislature. So 
 satisfactory did the service rendered prove, that he was again returned by his 
 constituents for three consecutive years; and again in 1846, 1847, 1852, and 1868, he 
 was sent by them to the State House of Representatives. Between the two latter 
 years, in 1854, he was chosen to serve in the Senate of the State, and was also 
 appointed by the Legislature of that year to the office of Judge of the County Court 
 for Fairfield County. Promotion to the highest official position in the common- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.E D 1 A. 75 
 
 wealth speedily followed, for in 1855 he was elected Governor of Connecticut, and 
 was again elected in 1856. 
 
 The vast immigration of foreigners to our great Republic is not an unmixed 
 good. Evils are associated with it whose operation the wisest legislation is needed to 
 neutralize. The social, political, and military organizations, composed exclusively of 
 members of foreign birth, had challenged his attention, and were brought to the 
 thoughtful notice of the Legislature in his message of 1855. " Combinations," he 
 remarked, " of our alien population — social, political, and military — are existing all over 
 the country. So far as the social combinations do not interfere with or disturb the 
 rights of others, they should remain unmolested. The political organizations, so far as 
 they are now existing, composed of naturalized citizens, cannot be disturbed ; but I 
 do not believe that military companies, to consist entirely of foreign-born citizens, 
 should be formed. Everything about such a company reminds its members, not that 
 they are American citizens, but that they owe allegiance yet to their native land." 
 In the summer of the same year. Governor Minor ascertained that there were 
 several military companies belonging to the State militia that were exclusively com- 
 posed of naturalized citizens, and of men who had not been naturalized at all. He 
 therefore issued an order, under which such companies were disbanded, and their 
 arms and equipments returned to the State Arsenal. Nor is he less philosophical 
 and far-seeing in his opinions of the common schools of Connecticut. In them he 
 sees the factors of true American nationality, and the surest safeguards against anarchy 
 and bad government. Consequently, he has ever felt the deepest interest in their 
 welfare, and has striven, both as voter and legislator, to make them ideally excellent: 
 Second to none, equal to the best." His is the honor of being the first Governor 
 of Connecticut to recommend to the Legislature that the common schools should be 
 made free to all the children of the State. " I shall cheerfully co-operate with you," 
 he said, "in making our common schools free; for such, in my opinion, the true 
 policy of our government requires that they should be." The result of his labors, and 
 of the eflForts of other philanthropic co-laborers, has been to raise the common schools 
 of Connecticut to a state of efficiency that is probably not surpassed in any State, 
 and is certainly unapproached by many of them. 
 
 Below the so-called practical philanthropies of ordinary legislation lies a wretched 
 class, ignored by most of the governments of the world, and hitherto but slightly 
 noticed in America. It consists of the imbecile and idiotic. Governor Minor brought 
 these unfortunates to the attention of the Legislature, spoke of the good that had 
 been accomplished elsewhere, and recommended that body to "take the necessary 
 steps to ascertain the number of idiotic in the State, their present condition, the 
 probabilities of improvement, and everything requisite to enable a future Legislature 
 
76 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 to act wisely and humanely with reference to this class." Among the members of the 
 House of Representatives at that time, was the late Dr. Henry M. Knight, of 
 Salisbury, who was himself most deeply interested in the mentally defective, and 
 through whose co-operation a school for imbeciles and idiots was afterward estab- 
 lished at Lakeville, in the town of Salisbury, Litchfield County. The institution 
 was intrusted to the care of Dr. Knight, who was excellently qualified to undertake 
 its charge. 
 
 Under his patient and skilful management many of the inmates have been 
 materially improved and benefited. His death, in the winter of 1879-80, was no 
 small loss to this deserving charity. 
 
 In July, 1864, Mr. Minor was appointed Consul-General at Havana, in the island 
 of Cuba, by President Lincoln, and entered upon his duties in December following. 
 The post was one of great trust and responsibility, and required unusual discretion 
 and firmness on the part of its incumbent. Havana was the resort of a large 
 number of persons from the rebellious Southern States, who were engaged in block- 
 ade-running and in other undertakings injurious to the commercial and national 
 interests of the United States. Constant care and watchfulness were needed on the 
 part of the Consul-General to thwart their destructive plans. About the ist of June, 
 1865, the formidable Confederate ram, Stonewall Jackson, entered the harbor. 
 Friends and enemies alike supposed that she would overmatch and possibly destroy 
 the entire United States fleet at Key West, sweep every national vessel from the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and raise the blockade of Galveston, New Orleans, and the entire 
 Mississippi River. Had these expectations been realized, new life would have been 
 given to the rebeUion, and the war for the preservation of the Union been indefi- 
 nitely protracted. Mr. Minor therefore resolved to prevent her departure from the 
 port, and through the kind offices of the Spanish Captain-General Dulce, then in 
 command in Cuba, succeeded in the endeavor. The "ram" was surrendered to Gen- 
 eral Dulce, and by him afterward given up to the United States Government. On 
 the day after her surrender tu that officer, a powerful armament, consisting of two 
 monitors and five other vessels of war, commanded by Admiral Godon, steamed into 
 the harbor, prepared to defend the interests of the United States in the event of any 
 emergency. That fleet had been dispatched by the Government, in consequence of 
 information forwarded by Consul-General Minor. Fortunately coercive measures had 
 been rendered unnecessary by previous negotiations and the surrender of the vessel. 
 Mr. Minor continued at his post until April, 1867, when he resigned, returned home, 
 and resumed the practice of his profession. The manifold mischiefs which afterward 
 grew out of the policy of President Andrew Johnson vindicated Mr. Minor's dissent 
 from the same, and the consequent^ relinquishment of his office. 
 
• :BtOGkAP HICAL UNCVCLOr.-EDI Ar^ 11 
 
 In the spring of i868_Mr. Minor was again] elected to the Legislature, and gave 
 his best efforts to accomplish a much needed reform. It was generally believed that 
 electoral frauds were quite common under the system of voting then prevalent. 
 Whether the belief were justified by facts or not, it is certain that the system then 
 in vogue afforded facilities for fraud, that any political party might utilize so far as 
 seemed to be desirable. That system was peculiar to Connecticut : allowing votes to 
 be cast in any town of the State on a certificate from the town clerk of some other 
 town that A. B. had been admitted an elector of the State, the presumption being 
 that A. B. was the person] presenting the certificate. It was asserted that in different 
 towns in the State large numbers of such certificates had been obtained in the 
 names of persons deceased, and of persons removed from the State, and fraudulent 
 votes cast upon the same. 
 
 The Legislature was so clearly convinced of the necessity of reform at this 
 point that it appointed a joint committee, of which Governor Minor was chairman 
 on the part of the House, to investigate the matter and report appropriate legisla- 
 tion. The work thus confided to the committee was performed with thoroughness 
 and zeal, and an entirely new electoral registry law, which abolished the vicious 
 practices complained of, was drafted and reported to the Legislature. A heated con- 
 test occurred over its passage. Those opposed to it claimed that it was a partisan 
 measure, and intended to operate in favor of one political party. How this could be 
 is not apparent to an outside observer. It evidently operates with equity on both 
 parties. If any of its provisions seem to be burdensome, both parties are equally 
 affected by them. It impartially imposes the same liabilities and obligations upon all 
 citizens. Its working has effectually checked the old practices, which, if left un- 
 checked, would have eaten out the very life of popular institutions. It was no small 
 service to the latter that was rendered by the Legislature in the final adoption of 
 the bill. 
 
 In 1868 Governor Minor was appointed by the Legislature one of the judges 
 of the Superior Court of the State, for the term of eight years, and entered upon 
 his duties in August of the same ^year. His judicial administration was characterized 
 by his usual ability, diligence, fidelity, and harmony with the unwritten law of the 
 State. The latter wisely divorces all judicial functionaries from current politics, so 
 far as active management and advocacy are concerned. The judges of Connecticut 
 have always voted as they pleased, but have conscientiously abstained from attend- 
 ance on political meetings and participation in partisan politics. The action of Judge 
 Minor was in harmony with the uniform precedent established by his predecessors and 
 contemporaries. For reasons satisfactory to himself, he concluded not to fulfil his 
 entire official term, and in 1873 tendered to the Legislature his resignation, to take 
 
78 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P,-E D I A. 
 
 effect on the 15th of November of that year. Since then he has been a resident of 
 Stamford, addicted to congenial pursuits, and wholly abstinent from legal practice. 
 
 Somewhat pertinent to Governor Minor's dissent from President Johnson's 
 political measures is the statement of the fact that in 1864 he was a delegate at 
 large from Connecticut to the National Republican Convention, held in Baltimore, 
 on the 9th of June, 1864, and was also the chairman of his delegation. He then 
 voted in favor of the renomination of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and of 
 the nomination of Andrew Johnson for the Vice-Presidency. Connecticut was the 
 first State called upon that gave a united vote to any candidate for the latter 
 office, and its twelve votes cast unanimously in favor of the candidate from Tennes- 
 see contributed largely to his nomination, if, indeed, it did not assure it. 
 
 Governor Minor was married in April, 1849, to Mary C, second daughter of 
 John W. Leeds, of Stamford, a gentleman who was president of the Stamford Bank 
 from the date of its organization in 1834, to that of his death, in March, 1878. 
 Five children, of whom two are now living, were the fruit of their union. One of 
 the survivors is a daughter, named Emily C, the other is a son, Charles W., who is 
 a practising lawyer in the city of New York, where he frequently receives from the 
 ripe knowledge and cultured judgment of Governor Minor such aid and counsel 
 as may be pertinent to affairs in progress. 
 
 r^ 
 
 1 
 
 pUBBARD, RICHARD DUDLEY, lawyer, of Hartford, ex-Governor of 
 Connecticut. Born at Berlin, Conn., September 7th, 18 18. The Hubbard 
 family has been identified with the history of the State from the earliest 
 Jr colonial days. Few, if any, names appear more frequently or conspicuously 
 
 in its historic records. It has been borne by many persons distinguished in clerical, 
 legal, and political pursuits, and in the military service of the United States. Its 
 orthography indicates descent from the old Norse stock, which, blended with the 
 Saxon, has done so much to spread Protestant civilization throughout the world. 
 The father of Mr. Hubbard was Lemuel Hubbard a native of Berlin, and was 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits. His mother, ncc Elizabeth Dudley, came from 
 Fayetteville, North Carolina. 
 
 Governor Hubbard's youth was passed in East Hartford. When prepared for 
 
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BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YCLO P.-^ D I A. 79 
 
 entrance at college, he matriculated at Yale, and graduated therefrom in 1839, ^^ 
 the age of twenty-one. Scholastically prepared for the duties of active life, and 
 constitutionally disposed to rely on his own exertions, he chose the profession of 
 law for his future vocation, and entered the office of Hungerford & Cone, at 
 Hartford. There he acquired a competent knowledge of common and statute law, 
 accustomed himself to close and comprehensive study, and became thoroughly quali- 
 fied for the achievement of success at the bar. 
 
 His political career began in 1842, in which year he was elected to the Legis- 
 lature as the representative of East Hartford. He was re-elected from the same town 
 in 1843. From 1846 to T868 he held the post of State's Attorney for Hartford 
 County. In the years 1855 and 1858 he represented Hartford in the Legislature, 
 and as a member of the Judiciary Committee, and also as chairman of the Com- 
 mittee on the School Fund, wielded great power in directing the legislation of the 
 State. The excellent public school system of Connecticut is indebted to hini, as 
 well as to other influential citizens, for its present high state of efficiency. During 
 the war for the preservation of the Union his sympathies and services were patri- 
 otically extended to the Federal Government and to the gallant soldiery that vin- 
 dicated its constitutional supremacy in actual warfare. In common with Governors 
 Buckingham and Douglass, with the Rev. Dr. L. W. Bacon and other clergymen, 
 and with experienced military commanders like Washington, Wellington, Napier, and 
 Napoleon, he held that the military value of soldiers is in proportion, other things 
 being equal, to their moral character, and liberally co-operated with Dr. Bacon in 
 organizing and sustaining the Chaplains' Aid Committee, whose object was to supply 
 all Connecticut regiments with chapel-tents, circulating libraries, and regular news- 
 papers, and to co-operate with the chaplains in their labors for the mental and moral 
 welfare of the men. The association accomplished much good while it lasted, and 
 justified the remark of one of the beneficiaries, that " Connecticut leads every other 
 State, even the old Bay State, in the aid she is furnishing her chaplains." 
 
 The war ended in the interests of free institutions, and of national unity and 
 perpetuity, in 1867 Mr. Hubbard was sent to the Fortieth Congress as represenl- 
 ative from the First District, to assist in the reconstruction and consolidation of 
 our common country, and in devising measures for protecting the equal rights and 
 privileges, and for fostering the highest welfare of all its citizens. In Washington 
 he served as a member of the Committees on Claims, and on Expenditures in 
 the Post-Office Department. At the close of his Congressional term a second 
 nomination was proffered to him, but was declined from motives of preference for 
 the legal profession. Mr. Hubbard belongs to a class of statesmen of whom 
 Connecricut has produced many, and of whom she has just reason to be proud— 
 
8o 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C V C LO PAil) I A. 
 
 that class whom official positions seek, and that with an urgency undiminished by 
 their aversion to public life, and reluctance to accept its responsibilities. 
 
 In 1872 he yielded to the solicitations of friends and accepted the Democratic 
 nomination for Governor, but was unsuccessful in his candidacy before the people. 
 In 1876 the office again sought and secured his acceptance, and in the following 
 election he was triumphantly chosen. The Souvenir of the Centennial states that 
 " almost under protest he took part in the canvass by making a few public speeches." 
 Governor Hubbard held office for two years as the first incumbent of the chief 
 magistracy under the amended Constitution of the State, which makes the term of 
 Governor biennial in duration. 
 
 His reputation as an orator is of high order. Few surpass him in magnetism 
 and attractiveness, have more ample command of language, or hold more closely 
 the attention of auditors. His speeches in Congress received cordial commendation, 
 and his addresses at home have been characterized by great acceptability. His fame 
 as a speaker rests chiefly upon successful efforts in the courts of law. During his 
 protracted service as State's Attorney for Hartford County, he was engaged in some 
 litigations of extraordinary local interest, in which he acquired wide reputation for 
 cultured ability. Thoroughly familiar with all legal principles, and quick to adduce 
 all pertinent precedents and authorities at pleasure, he also delights to plant himself 
 on those eternal equities which underlie all just legal enactments. Remarkable for 
 the aptness of his diction, for the force and beauty of his illustrations, and for 
 the eloquence which bursts from the heart in sympathy with its client, the triumphs 
 won in legal conflicts live in the memories of contemporaries, many of whom 
 regard him as the present leader of the State bar. His personal dignity of manner 
 has sometimes, it is said, been mistaken for haughtiness, but those who know him 
 best affirm with truthfulness his steadfastness in friendship, his kindliness of soul, 
 and his courtesy in intercourse with men. His opinions are the fruit of mature 
 thought, his firmness in harmony with his convictions, and his integrity unques- 
 tioned by his widespread constituents. 
 

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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 8i 
 
 UCKINGHAM, WILLIAM A., War-Governor of Connecticut. Born on 
 the 28th of May, 1804, in the ancient town of Lebanon, Conn. He was 
 
 of a Puritan family, whose memorials, from the first of the name who left 
 
 England in 1637, down to the present, have been preserved in unbroken 
 line. Their publication affords a splendid illustration of the power of early influences 
 in moulding the character of successive generations. The first American immigrant 
 of the name — Thomas Buckingham — settled first in Boston, then in New Haven, 
 and finally at Milford, Conn. His son, the Rev. Thomas Buckingham, settled in 
 Saybrook, and was one of the founders of Yale College, and of the Synod that 
 formed the Saybrook platform. Governor Buckingham was of the eighth generation in 
 line of direct descent from the God-fearing heroic English Puritan. For nearly two 
 centuries and a half, the record shows that his ancestors were men of fervent piety 
 of superior intellectual powers, of rare sagacity in affairs, and of prominence in the 
 community of which they were members. It may also be added that they were in 
 thorough sympathy with the doctrine that all men are entitled to equal rights in 
 church and state. Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter, in his magnificent work on The Con- 
 gregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, as Seen in its Literature, p. 573, 
 records that "in September, 1660, at the ordination of Thomas Buckingham, in Say- 
 brook, Conn., the lay brethren claimed it as their right to lay on hands. The Council 
 thought it " irregular," but " as the brethren are so tenacious in what they consider 
 their right, they are allowed in its exercise." Felt, c. ii., p. 267. There can be little 
 doubt that the pastor elect shared in their views, and none that his opinions were 
 substantially transmitted to his descendants. The father and mother of WiUiam A. 
 Buckingham were both remarkable persons. Of the first, it is said that he was an 
 enterprising and thrifty farmer, of cordial and hospitable characteristics, a Christian 
 gentleman of rare good judgment, of careful and exact business habits, reverent/ 
 tender-hearted, and full of sympathy, and rigid in his ideas of personal duty. Of the 
 second, it is said that she commanded the love and gratitude of the entire community 
 in which she lived ; that she ministered like an angel to the relief of the sick and 
 dying ; that she spent little on herself, but much on others ; scattering her gifts 
 wherever needed, and giving most cheerfully the best at her command. With such 
 a parentage, William A. Buckingham must necessarily have developed an extraordinary 
 manhood. He did so : a manhood extraordinary in its greatness and goodness, and 
 extraordinary in its preciousness to the patriots of his State and nation. 
 
 He was born and reared among patriotic associates ; for even in the colonial 
 period, and especially in the days of Jonathan Trumbull, Lebanon was pre-eminent for 
 its patriotism. He was educated in the public schools in his own and a neighboring 
 village. He was taught to bear his own part in honest labor on his father's farm. 
 
82 BIOGRAPHICAL MNC YCLOF^DIA. 
 
 At the age of eighteen he taught school for a single year; but preferring the 
 vocation of a merchant, as best suited to his tastes and circumstances, he entered 
 into the employ of a mercantile firm at Norwich as a clerk. Trade became his 
 study, and a study in which he became so proficient, after three years of close 
 application, that he felt himself qualified for business upon his own responsibility. 
 At twenty-three he opened a store in Norwich, and was successful in the venture 
 from the very outset. As a man of business he was a model. " Upright, prompt, 
 faithful to all engagements, attentive, careful, courteous, and possessed of that rare 
 sagacity which was a family trait, he won the confidence of all with whom he had 
 relations." "At the age of twenty-six," continues the Hon. O. S. Ferry, from whose 
 memorial address in the Senate of the United States these extracts are taken, " he 
 'made open profession of the faith which had already become the controlling influence in 
 his Hfe, by uniting in the membership of the church of his ancestors. Between that 
 event and the present hour [February 27th, 1875], forty -five years of a stainless life, 
 and of earnest, unceasing. Christian endeavor attest the sincerity of his profession." 
 
 Soon afterward he added manufacturing to his mercantile pursuits, and in 1848 
 abandoned the latter altogether in order to devote his entire means and energies to 
 the former in new and more expanded methods. In the mean time he had married 
 and built up a cultivated, refined, and Christian home. Prosperity abundantly rewarded 
 his labors. The circle of his personal influence expanded as the knowledge of his 
 chara'cter and abilities was spread abroad. 
 
 Prior to 1856, Mr. Buckingham had held no public station, except that of 
 ■Mayor of Norwich"; but " no man ever lived who more truly, unaffectedly, and 
 constantly regarded all his possessions, whether of time, talents, property, or influence, 
 as a stewardship for God and humanity." " No opportunity to do good, great or 
 small, escaped him. He taught little children in the Sunday-school. As deacon 
 of the church, he was its almoner to the poor, and the distributor of the sacred 
 emblems to the membership of its communion, and to the stranger within its gates. 
 He helped to found academies, build up public libraries, provide for feeble churches, 
 promote temperance reform, endow colleges, and to send the light of Christian 
 civilization to the remotest corners of the globe. And all this so quietly, so 
 naturally as it were, that, proceeding from him, it seemed nothing extraordinary. 
 Moreover, there were ever flowing from him streams of hidden beneficence, gladdening 
 many hearts, and drying the tears in many eyes, whose story never will be told till 
 the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed." 
 
 Mr. Buckingham's conscientious convictions led him to pour out his personal 
 influence into the great tidal wave of popular opposition to the further progress of 
 human slavery that disintegrated old^ political' parties, and prepared the material for 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 83 
 
 new ones. He had always been a Whig. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 shocked every sensibility of his intellectual and moral nature. He became an ardent, 
 intelligent, forceful Republican, as a matter of course. At the Presidential election of 
 1856, when the new party for the first time entered the field as a national political 
 organization, his name was placed on the Republican electoral ticket, and greatly 
 contributed to its success. Brought thus prominently before the people, and better 
 appreciated by being better known, he was nominated and elected Governor of 
 Connecticut in the spring of 1858. For eight years, by consecutive annual elections, 
 he held that exalted and influential position. Those years cover the most eventful 
 portion of American history since the war of independence. In the third year of his 
 administration the election of Mr. Lincoln became the signal for the bursting of the 
 storm that had been gathering so long. Two diametrically opposed systems of society, 
 coeval with the foundation of the Repubhc, came into violent and sanguinary 
 collision. Slavery and freedom were arrayed against each other, and one of the twain 
 must perish. The rectitude of slavery was as clear to its adherents as its moral 
 turpitude was to its opponents. The election of Mr. Lincoln put a final stop to 
 its extension, and brought the hostile forces to a final issue. If, for the preservation 
 of slavery, the experiment of secession was inevitable ; to Governor Buckingham, 
 " secession was rebellion, and an ordinance of secession was a declaration of war." In 
 the winter of 1860-61 he began to prepare for the conflict. The assault on Fort 
 Sumter justified his preparations, and from the fall of that Federal fortress he devoted 
 himself " mind and body and estate, to bring that .conflict to a successful issue." The 
 Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65 is largely a 
 history of his' administration. His personal history is not only a prominent part of the 
 history of Connecticut, but also of the United States of America. Unprepared as the 
 State was for the dread issue forced upon it, " the Governor anticipated the enact- 
 ment of laws, assumed responsibility, and pledged his private credit in the purchase 
 of supplies and munitions of war for the troops which from all parts of the State 
 were filling up the rolls of the volunteers. When the Legislature assembled it passed 
 acts of indemnity, and litterally placed the whole resources of the State at his dispo- 
 sal. And thus it continued substantially during the entire war. Never was a trust 
 more faithfully executed. As call after call for troops proceeded from Washington, 
 the Governor was indefatigable in securing the promptest response." His time, 
 energies, and personal resources were given to the completeness of their equipment 
 and the promotion of their comfort. Nothing was omitted : neither Bibles, nor 
 books, nor chapel-tents, nor aught else, moral or material, that could contribute to 
 their welfare and effectiveness. He made it a matter of duty to visit every regi- 
 ment and address to its officers words of counsel. To a citizen of the State 
 
84 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 whose duties kept him almost constantly at the front, Governor Buckingham said: 
 " You will see a good many battles and much suffering ; don't let any Connecticut 
 man suffer for want of anything that can be done for him ; if it costs money, 
 draw on me for it." The same person telegraphed to him from the field of Gettys- 
 burg while yet the grounds were strewn with the dead and wounded, and quick 
 as the wires could bear it came back the response : " Take good care of the Con- 
 necticut men." 
 
 All through the direful struggle his courage and convictions never faltered. No 
 compromise with citizens in arms against the National Government was possible. 
 The very word negotiation implied national death. " Whatever of trial, suffering, or 
 privation may be in store for us," he said, " or however long may be the controversy, 
 firm in the faith that our nation will be preserved in its integrity, let us in adver- 
 sity as well as in prosperity, in darkness as well as in light, give the administration 
 our counsel, our confidence, our support." Such a man as he was a tower of strength 
 to the nation in its supreme crisis. The spirit of the old Hebrew warriors, and 
 of the grim but godly Ironsides who conquered at Naseby and at Marston Moor, 
 dwelt in his bosom. 
 
 The exigencies of the war frequently took him to Washington during its 
 whole continuance. There he won the respect of all by his capacity, firmness, and 
 devotion to the common cause. He was especially endeared to President Lincoln, 
 who appreciated him at his eminent worth, and who impressively said to a gentle- 
 man from Connecticut : " From Connecticut 1 Do you know what a good Governor 
 you have got ? " So thoroughly did the citizens of Connecticut know that they had 
 one of the best of chief magistrates, they would not allow him to leave his post while 
 the rebellion continued. Not until it had wholly collapsed, not until the national 
 victory was complete, not until the authority of the Republic was permanently 
 re-established, would they permit him to seek much-needed repose. Nor even then 
 could they consent to dispense with his services, but called him to occupy the highest 
 legislative position it was in their power alone to confer. In May, 1866, his last term 
 of office as Governor expired. In May, 1868, they elected him a Senator of the United 
 States. Thereafter, for nearly six years, he went in and out with that august body of 
 men who constitute the National Senate. All regarded him with loving reverence and 
 unalloyed respect as a humble Christian, a pure statesmen, a sincere patriot, a perfect 
 gentleman, in all a model to all of his peers. " Ever assiduous in business, doing his 
 work in committee and in the Senate with the laborious industry of his earlier prime 
 and the matured wisdom of his ripening years, he was the faithful representative of 
 his State and the constant guardian of his country's interests." 
 
 When the session ot 1874-5 began, it was manifest that his active and event 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 85 
 
 ful career was about to close. His mind remained clear and unperturbed, while the 
 bodily powers were failing. Near the end of life, he sank into unconsciousness and fell 
 asleep. Great dignitaries came to take one last look into the face of the departed. 
 Senators, representatives, governors, and judges of the land were there : young 
 and old, rich and poor, men and women, the wise, the brilliant, and the beautiful 
 came to pay a last tribute of respect to his sterling worth and manifold virtues. 
 "Among them all was observed a humble negro couple, advanced in years. With 
 bowed faces they paused at the coffin, gazed upon the calm features with tears 
 streaming down their dusky cheeks, and passed on, bursting into irrepressible sobs 
 as they moved from the apartment. No one knew the story of those tears ; but 
 from what I know "of the dead I am sure that there was a story in them, and I 
 call to mind the words of Him who said, ' Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
 one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.'" The eloquent 
 words with which the fellow-Senator of the deceased closed a most impressive sketch 
 of his life will command the unqualified assent of all who had the privilege of know- 
 ing William A. Buckingham : " The history of such a man is the best delineation 
 of his character. Posterity will affirm of him that his own age was the better for 
 his life, and his example the best legacy that he could leave to succeeding genera- 
 tions." 
 
 Possessed of great aptness and readiness for his duties, and making no claim to 
 oratory, he had a fund of useful information, a practical knowledge of business, and 
 a ready abilit)^ to express his views clearly and forcibly that always commanded the 
 most respectful and undivided attention. Systematic, industrious, and remarkably 
 faithful, " as a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce he mastered most 
 fully the important questions that were there presented for discussion and action. As 
 chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs he stood resolutely for justice for this 
 stricken race, who so sadly need friends. His voice and his vote were always given 
 with the most conscientious regard for the public interest and the nation's honor.'' 
 
 Seldom indeed ai'e the eulogies pronounced on deceased statesmen by members 
 of the United States Senate and House of Representatives so truthful, so sincere, so 
 heart-felt as those that were uttered in connection with the death of WiUiam A. 
 Buckingham, Connecticut has been prolific of statesmen, of soldiers, of patriots, of 
 great men in the different walks of modern life ; but among them all there is not one 
 of whom she may more justly be proud than of him. " Rich in saving common- 
 sense," and rich in all the elements and characteristics of symmetrical Christian man- 
 hood, he has left a precious memory to his children and family, to his business 
 associates, to the patriot soldiers for whom he so wisely and generously cared, to the 
 church of which he was an adornment, and to the State of which he was one of the 
 
86 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Strongest and truest leaders. His death recalled to the minds of many survivors what 
 the English poet-laureate said in speaking of one of England's good and great men: 
 
 " O good gray head which all men knew ; 
 O steady nerve to all occasions true ; 
 O fall'n at length that tower of strength 
 
 Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew." 
 
 Governor Buckingham was married on the 27th of September, 1830, to Elisa 
 Ripley, daughter of Dr. Dwight Ripley of Norwich Conn., a wealthy and prominent 
 citizen known and respected throughout the whole eastern section of the State. 
 
 »EWELL, MARSHALL, of Hartford, ex-Governor of Connecticut, and ex- 
 Postmaster-General of the United States. Born in Winchester, New Hamp- 
 shire, October 20th, 1825. His parents, Pliny and Emily (Alexander) Jewell, 
 were natives of the same State. 
 
 The Jewell Register, containing a list of the descendants of Thomas Jewell of 
 Braintree, near Boston, Mass., states that that gentleman was probably born in Eng- 
 land, not far from the year 1600; and that sundry considerations lead to the con- 
 jecture that he was of the same stock as Bishop John Jewell, a learned writer, and 
 one of the fathers of the English Protestant Episcopal Church, who was born in 
 Devon, a.d. 1522, and died a.d. 1571. Thomas Jewell appears in the Boston Record, 
 of February 24th, 1639, as the recipient of a conditional grant of twelve acres of land. 
 
 He married Grisell — , by whom he had several sons and daughters, and died 
 
 in 1654. 
 
 His son Joseph, born April 24th, 1642, first lived in Charlestown, and kept the 
 ferry between that place and Boston ; then, about the age of fifty, removed to Stow, 
 where he owned a grist-mill, and where he died at an unrecorded date. He married 
 
 Martha , about 1670; and afterward Isabel , who lived to be over 103. 
 
 H!is son Joseph, born June, 1673; died at Dudley, Mass., in 1766, aged 93. He was 
 married to Mary Morris, in Boston, by the Rev. Cotton Mather, on the 14th of 
 September, 1 704 ; and had six children ; of whom the fifth, Archibald, was born April 
 8th, 1 716, at Plainfield, Conn., and died of small-pox, December 26th, 1777, at 
 Dudley, Mass. Archibald Jewell married Rebecca Leonard,^ January 6th, 1741 ; and 
 
l-f^tf 
 
 A^ ~ ' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 87 
 
 had eleven children, of whom the second, Asahel, born August 2d, 1744; died at 
 Winchester, N. H., April 30th, 1790. Asahel married Hannah Wright, November 
 5th, 1767, and had ten children, of whom the fourth, Asahel, was born May i6th, 
 1776, and died at Winchester, N. H., August 29th, 1834. Ashael Jewell, Jr., married 
 Hephzibah Chamberlain, February 21st, 1797; and had six children, of whom Pliny, 
 the eldest, was born September 27th, 1797. He married Emily Alexander, Sep- 
 tember 9th, 18 19, and had ten children, of whom Governor Marshall Jewell is the 
 fourth. 
 
 Pliny Jewell carried on business as a tanner in New Hampshire for many 
 years. He was also an active member of the Congregation alist Church, and was 
 politically identified with the old Whig party, by which he was returned at several 
 different times to the State Legislature. In 1845 he removed to Hartford, Conn., 
 continuing the tanner's trade, and also adding the manufacture of leather belting. 
 He died at Hartford in the year 1865. 
 
 Marshall Jewell's early scholastic education was received in the district schools. 
 Business education began in his eighteenth year, when he went to Boston as the 
 apprentice of John Cummings & Son, of Woburn. The son of John C, a tanner 
 and currier, is now president of the Shawmut National Bank in that city. With 
 him the youth thoroughly learned his trade, and afterward pursued it at various 
 places in Massachusetts until 1847. He then, because of the dullness of his own 
 business, turned his attention to telegraphy, and mastered the details of that art in 
 Rochester, N. Y. There he became acquainted with the Hon. Alonzo B. Cornell, 
 the present Governor of New York, who was engaged in the same occupation, and 
 has kept up the acquaintance "until the present hour. From Rochester he went to 
 Akron, Ohio, took charge of an office in that place, and then went South, where 
 he engaged in the construction of telegraph lines and the opening of offices — under 
 the supervision of Henry O'Reilly — between Louisville and New Orleans. 
 
 During the Presidential canvass of 1848 he was in charge of the telegraph office 
 at Columbia, Tenn., and, although a young man, took an active part in the defence 
 of Whig principles and the election of General Taylor. In the spring of 1849 
 he opened an office in Jackson, Miss., but remained in charge for a brief space only, 
 being thoroughly opposed to the pro-slavery sentiments of Jefferson Davis and asso- 
 ciates, to whose political harangues he had the opportunity of listening. Patriotism 
 and humanity, both, inspired him to write numerous anti-slavery letters to his own 
 friends in the land of the Puritans. 
 
 The South was not congenial to him, and he wisely determined to quit its pre- 
 cincts. J. D. Reid, Esq., president of a company owning a telegraphic line between 
 Boston and New York, offered him the post of superintendent, which was accepted 
 
88 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 for a little while. The manufacture of leather belting was then in its infancy, but 
 had been studied in all its relations and prospects by his father, with whom he 
 decided to enter upon that business. The firm of P. Jewell & Son was formed on 
 the ist of January, 1850, and has continued to the present, with only a simple change 
 in the title to P. Jewell & Sons. The present members are Marshall Jewell and 
 three of his brothers. 
 
 From 1852 to 1857 Mr. Jewell spent most of his time in the West, extending 
 the business of his firm, and powerfully aiding to place it in the position it now 
 occupies, in the front rank of its class, both in respect of magnitude of operation 
 and excellence of production. The reputation of its leather and belting enjoys the 
 commercial rating of A i. Throughout his entire public career he has retained his 
 connection with the paternal firm ; and has also, since 1 860, been a special part- 
 ner in the house of Charles Root & Co., a large and successful diy-goods jobbing 
 house in Detroit, Mich. With different monetary and other incorporated institu- 
 tions he has been an'ci is closely identified. Of the board of directors of the Phoenix 
 Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, he was one of the original members, and 
 still holds the same relation to it. Of the Travelers Insurance Company of Hart- 
 ford, he was also a charter member. Since 1855 he has been a director of the 
 Hartford Bank, one of the oldest and most stable of the financial establishments in 
 New England. Under its noted president, the late Henry A. Perkins, he laid the 
 foundation of that reputation for fiscal ability which he has built up by long years 
 of successful private and public enterprise. In 1859 ^i^d i860 he was occupied with 
 the extension of business to Europe. 
 
 When the great rebellion against the United States Government broke out, Mr. 
 Jewell efficiently assisted to raise troops for the national defence, and subsequently 
 became an active participant in the kindly beneficence of the Sanitary and Christian 
 Commissions. In 1865 and 1866 he revisited Europe, extended his tour into Africa, 
 and after visiting the celebrated Nile, repaired to Syria and other countries in Asiatic 
 and European Turkey. In 1867 he attended the French Exposition at Paris, and 
 there met with many of the leading tanners in the two hemispheres. Various im- 
 portant topics relevant to their common art were discussed, and particularly the 
 most desirable length of time to be consumed in tanning leather. The subject had 
 been one of agitation and experiment; and the decision, so far as the majority is 
 regarded, was in favor of adherence to old methods. 
 
 After his return to Connecticut, in 1867, Mr. Jewell bore an active part in the 
 contest over the governorship in aid of General Hawley, then incumbent and also 
 a candidate for re-election. He was chairman of the local Republican Committee, 
 and also the nominee of his party for the State Senate from his own, the First, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 89 
 
 district. Mr. Jewell ran ahead of his ticket in the election, but nevertheless 
 shared with his compatriots in defeat at the polls. The tact and vigor revealed on 
 that occasion recommended him favorably to the suffrages of the commonwealth, 
 and in the ensuing year he was himself a competitor with Governor English, the 
 successful contestant of the previous year, for the chief magisterial chair, but was 
 again unsuccessful. Nothing daunted, he tried the issue a second time, in 1869, 
 with the same gentleman, and came off victorious. Parties in Connecticut are almost 
 evenly balanced, and light matters may depress either scale. Weighed in the popu- 
 lar balance against each other in 1870, Mr. English was chosen, and rejected once 
 more in 1871, in favor of Mr. Jewell. The former then retired from the field, 
 and Richard D. Hubbard, conceded to be the ablest man of his party, took his 
 place as candidate before the people. The canvass in behalf of himself and also 
 of Governor Jewell was exceedingly active and exhaustive, and resulted in the 
 choice of Mr. Jewell by only twenty-eight majority. 
 
 During the week following his retirement from office in May, 1873, Gov. Jewell 
 was a guest with President Grant at the house of Hon. Henry Farnum of New Ha- 
 ven. Soon afterward Gov. Jewell went out to Detroit to direct the construction of a 
 tannery, and while there, ascertained through the medium of the press that his name 
 had been sent in by the President to the Senate for confirmation as United States 
 minister to St. Petersburg. The compliment was wholly unsolicited and therefore 
 wholly unexpected by the recipient. It was none the less appropriate and grace- 
 ful. The fitness of the appointment soon became strikingly manifest. In June, 1873, 
 he received his credentials, and, on the 2d of July, accompanied by his family, 
 sailed for Europe. American industrial art is not frequently honored by such distinc- 
 tions, but when it is — as in the persons of Franklin and Jewell — it has never 
 failed to reflect greater honor on the wisdom of the appointing power. On his 
 route to Russia, Minister Jewell visited the Vienna Exposition of Art and Industry, 
 and held a conference with leading American manufacturers there. The superior 
 advantages of the country to which he was accredited in the manufacture of iron 
 and leather, and particularly in the production of that peculiar lustre in the iron, 
 and odor in the leather, were points thoroughly discussed. Jackson S. Schultz, of 
 New York, and other prominent Americans urged him to obtain such information 
 as would enable American manufacturers to produce an article similar to Russia 
 leather. This he did while resident at St. Petersburg. Having obtained permission 
 to visit the several manufactories in Russia, he instituted a series of close investi- 
 gations, in which his practical experience proved to be of great service ; obtained 
 all the knowledge desired, purchased the necessary materials, and forwarded the same 
 to Mr. Schultz, with instructions to make the information thus communicated the 
 
go BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 common property of the American trade. This was done, and enabled the late 
 J. S. Rockwell and others to manufacture an article closely assimilated in all quali- 
 ties to the Russian leather. While at the court of the Czar, Minister Jewell ably 
 and successfully negotiated a trade-mark treaty with Russia. He had discovered that 
 many articles of inferior quality were offered as American productions in its markets ; 
 notably, sewing-machines, Fairbanks' scales, and Collins's axes, and after correspond- 
 ence with a number of prominent manufacturers in the United States, initiated the 
 measures which culminated in the arrangement desiderated. 
 
 In July, 1874, upon the retirement of Postmaster-General Creswell, his Cabinet 
 portfolio was offered to, and accepted by. Minister Jewell, who paid his respects to 
 the Autocrat of all the Russias at the palace of Tsarsko-Selo on the i8th of the 
 same month, and at once started for Washington to assume the duties of his new 
 office. En route, he paused at Berlin and also at Paris to investigate the postal 
 systems of their respective countries. Next, he crossed the English Channel, and 
 visited London for the same purpose. While in England he received many tokens 
 of delicate and marked appreciation from the Postmaster-General, Lord John Man- 
 ners. Postal telegraphy was another subject of simultaneous examination, in which 
 his thorough knowledge of the telegraphic art was of great service. The benefits 
 of the European system are apparent on the surface, and suggest the expediency 
 of putting all American lines under control ' of the National Government. Post- 
 master-General Creswell had already inaugurated measures looking to that end, and 
 to the establishment of a system of postal telegraphy in this country. But there 
 were evils to be apprehended from its adoption. The civil service of the nation 
 would be increased, and that necessarily, by several thousand additional office-holders, 
 and the difficulties growing out of the enormous official patronage of the General 
 Government be thereby augmented. Conservatism forbade pursuance of the project; 
 and it was suffered to fall to the ground. 
 
 As Postmaster-General, Governor Jewell's administration was characterized by the 
 same energy, thoroughness, and judicious adaptation of means to ends which have 
 distinguished him in all positions of honor and trust. Through his agency the 
 evils of fraudulent contracts and " straw bids" were rooted out of the department, 
 probably never to reappear, and an era of honesty and responsibility inaugurated. 
 To him were also due the arrangements made with presidents Vanderbilt and Scott, 
 of the New York Central and Pennsylvania Central Railroads, by which postal 
 matter -was conveyed in fast mail trains from New York to Chicago in twenty-six 
 hours, and which continued in successful operation until the close of his eminently 
 beneficent term of public service. 
 
 Mr. Jewell having business connections in the Provinces, earnestly desired to 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 91 
 
 bring the two countries into closer relations, and accordingly, with the consent of 
 the President, he obtained an interview with the Hon. George Brown of Toronto, 
 who laid before the Postmaster-General of Canada, Mr. Jewell's plan of uniting the 
 two countries on a common postal system, and on Christmas Day of 1875 he had 
 the pleasure of presenting this privilege to the people of the United States and 
 Canada. 
 
 On the i8th of July, 1876, Governor Jewell returned to private life, and has 
 since devoted his energies to the business undertakings of P. Jewell & Sons. His 
 past public services reflect unblemished honor on his private relations ; for they 
 were rendered in the spirit of unselfish patriotism, and with pure desire for the 
 promotion of the general welfare. The citizens of Hartford expressed the national 
 estimate of his abilities and worth in the rejoicings with which they welcomed his 
 return. Illuminations, mihtary displays at public receptions, and congratulatory ad- 
 dresses of welcome are all of [intrinsic value when they represent, as in Governor 
 Jewell's case, the opinions and affections that have come to maturity in presence 
 of a noble and patriotic career. 
 
 In the Presidential campaign of 1880 Mr. Jewell was again called upon by his 
 party, and was chosen chairman of the Republican National Committee. 
 
 On the 6th of October, 1852, Mr. Jewell was united in marriage with Esther, 
 daughter of William Dickinson, Esq., of Newburgh, N. Y. Two daughters are the 
 issue of the union. The eldest studied at Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and 
 is now the wife of Arthur M., youngest son of William E. Dodge of New York. 
 The youngest, Florence W., married W. H. Strong of Detroit, Mich. 
 
92 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO PJED I A . 
 
 'i|§JpAWLEY, JOSEPH R, of Hartford, ex-Governor of Connecticut. Born 
 i^W '^' Stewartsville, Richmond Co., North Carolina. The Rev. Francis Hawley, 
 li MikMs his father, is a native of Farmington, Conn., and a descendant of one 
 e of the early settlers of the State. His mother, nee Mary McLeod, 
 
 was born at Fayetteville, N. C, and is descended from Scotch ancestry. The 
 McLeods, from time immemorial, have been one of the most powerful and war- 
 like clans in the west of Scotland. Rev. Francis Hawley removed to the South 
 at the .age of twenty-one, and entered into mercantile business. He then married, 
 devoted himself to the work of the Christian ministry, and after fourteen years 
 of residence and labor in North and South Carolina, returned to his native State 
 in November, 1837. 
 
 The primary scholastic education of young Hawley began in the district 
 school, was continued in the Hartford Grammar School, and, on the removal of 
 the family to Cazenovia, N. Y., in 1842, in the Oneida Conference Seminary at 
 that place. Matriculating at Hamilton College, N. Y., in 1844, he entered the 
 Sophomore class, and graduated with honors in 1847. As a linguist and orator he 
 excelled. Politics naturally attracted him ; and the wide range of miscellaneous 
 reading in which he delighted supplied him with illustrative material in the debates 
 to which he was an efficient party. Physical exercises and amusements contributed 
 to superb physical development, and thus aided to prepare him for the influential 
 part he was destined to play in the great drama of national life. By the students 
 he was unanimously elected the valedictorian of one of the two literary societies 
 into which the college was divided — namely, the Union. This was the highest 
 honor within their power to bestow. Subsequent to graduation, like William H. 
 Seward and other histoi'ic politicians, he taught school. While thus engaged he 
 also studied law, and in May, 1849, entered the office of John Hooker, Esq., of 
 Farmington, with whom he contracted partnership, and on September ist, 1850, 
 opened a law office at Hartford under the style and title of Hooker & Hawley. 
 
 Mr. Hawley's entrance upon public life was marked by pronounced identifi- 
 cation with the Free-Soil party. The Carolinas have given birth to some of the 
 most inteUigent and resolute antagonists of American slavery, and among the most 
 ardent of these he was numbered, and that from his earliest years. In the begin- 
 ning of 185 1 he was chosen the chairman of the Free-Soil State Committee, and 
 held that position until those who thought and acted with him in relation to 
 national polity were blended, together with himself, in the Republican party. Active 
 agitators necessarily use the newspaper press in pressing beneficent reforms, and 
 Mr. Hawlej^ in harmony with the general law, became a frequent contributor to 
 the Republican, the weekly organ of the Free-Soilers, and which was afterward con- 
 
.TvXi( [ul Uii^ I II 1 Jl J rlT, 
 
 (5 II If L J] . IT: . m /\ W 11 [£ ^J'n 
 
 (pFJ:,oIDEl-n' CEI-iTElIIITAX C'jMM] 3 :■' UJlT ) 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 93 
 
 solidated with the Press. With many irons in the fire, the young lawyer knew 
 how to keep each, and especially the principal one, from burning. The law busi- 
 ness of Hooker & Hawley waxed large and lucrative. He, himself, was one of 
 the most active participants in the organization of the Repubhcan party in 1854-5; 
 and, for several months in 1856, did excellent service in the portentous political 
 campaign of that year. 
 
 Politics, rather than law, was evidently the sphere to which he was best fitted ; 
 and, in February, 1857, together with William Faxon, under the firm title of 
 Hawley & Faxon, he purchased the Hartford Evening Press, a daily, and also 
 the Connecticut Press, a weekly newspaper, which had enjoyed a brief existence of 
 twelve months as the exponents of the principles and policy of Republicanism. 
 The practice of law was then definitively relinquished. Within the two following 
 years ^he invited Charles Dudley Warner, of Chicago, and four years after that, Stephen 
 A. Hubbard of West Winsted, to associate themselves with him in the enterprise of 
 editing and publishing his recent purchases. The invitation was accepted, and the 
 connection has lasted to the present. Three years of hard labor were needful to 
 put the Press on a paying basis, and sufficed to accomplish that object. His 
 partner, Mr. Faxon, left, the paper for the office of chief clerk in the Navy 
 Department, in which he rendered eight years of useful and honorable service — part 
 of the time as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 Events moved with gigantic step and bewildering speed, and brought the 
 Republic to a dangerous crisis in April, 1861. The hands of slavery and secession 
 bombarded Fort Sumter, and supplanted the Stars and Stripes by the Palmetto 
 flag. The spirit of nationality at once caught fire, and burned in every loyal heart 
 with intense and consuming glow. President Lincoln felt that he could rely upon 
 its help. His call for 75,000 troops reached Hartford on Monday, the 13th inst. 
 Mr. Hawley, in conjunction with Mr. Drake, promptly raised a military company, 
 and purchased rifles for them on his own responsibility, at Sharp's factory. George 
 S. Burnham was offered the command, and accepted it ; but, being promoted to 
 the colonelcy, left the way open for the election of Mr. Hawley, who thus became 
 captain of Rifle Company A, First Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. It was the 
 first organization of the kind that was completed in the State, and was accepted 
 —fully enrolled — on Thursday evening, April i6th. In company with his regiment 
 Captain Hawley proceeded to Washington, entered Virginia in May, and bore his 
 part in the engagement at Bull Run on the 21st of July. The battle was fiercely 
 contested, and but for the opportune arrival of the rebel general, Kirby Smith, would 
 unquestionably have been as conclusive a victory as it proved to be a defeat to the 
 Union army. Human valor, undisciplined as it was, could not achieve more than it 
 
94 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 did on that disastrous day. Captain Hawley then won his first military laurels, and 
 was honorably mentioned in the report of his brigade commander, General Keyes. 
 His three months' service expired on the day of the conflict. He was then ap- 
 pointed major by Governor Buckingham, and assigned to duty in charge of recruits 
 at Hartford. There he and Colonel Alfred H. Terry — now Brigadier-General United 
 States army — united in raising the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers, of whom he 
 was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 The Seventh Connecticut was mustered into service September 19th, 1861, 
 ordered to Washington, and incorporated with- the Port Royal expedition, under 
 command of General T. W. Sherman. It was the first to land at Port Royal after 
 its capture by the navy, November loth, and had been selected to lead the 
 assault, if assault should be necessary. In December, connected with the 48th New 
 York, on Tybee Island, it united in the siege of Fort Pulaski. On April loth 
 and nth, 1862, during the bombardment, Lieutenant-Colonel Hawley was field-officer 
 of the trenches and with his regiment gained the honor of being assigned to the 
 occupancy of the surrendered fort, which they entered immediately. On Colonel 
 Terry's promotion to the rank of brigadier, Lieutenant-Colonel Hawley succeeded to 
 the command, and asked that his regiment might share in Benham's expedition 
 against Charleston. It left Pulaski about May 30th, fought valiantly in the sangui- 
 nary combat at Secessionville, June i6th, and received high praise for bravery. A 
 few days afterward its leader received his merited commission as colonel, and for two 
 years next ensuing took part in most of the active operations in the department of 
 the South. He was participant in the battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina, October 
 20th, 1862, the capture of Jacksonville, and the fortifications on the St. John's River, 
 in Florida. In February, 1863, he was assigned to the command of Fernandina, 
 Florida, and the region contiguous. In April he was in command of Port Royal, the 
 base of supply during the iron-clad attack on Fort Sumter. Next, he was ordered 
 to the command of St. Augustine and vicinity. In leading the landing on Morris 
 Island, and in the assault on Fort Wagner, August i6th, 1863, four companies of his 
 regiment .suffered so severely that he asked and received permission of General 
 Gillmore to rejoin it, and did so at once. The Seventh Connecticut sustained a 
 conspicuous part in the siege. Captain Gray had charge of the three-hundred-pounder 
 Parrott gun ; other members of the regiment manipulated the light mortars, and 
 others prepared ammunition at the magazines. Toward the close. Colonel Hawley 
 was placed in charge of a brigade. When Forts Wagner and Gregg had surrendered, 
 and Morris Island was wholly in possession of the Union forces, the regiment was 
 ordered to St. Helena Island, and there vigorously practised battalion drill in small 
 boats, with a view to night assault upon Fort Sumter. The undertaking was not 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 95 
 
 attempted, although the men lay for ten days, in October, on Folly Island, expecting 
 nightly to receive orders to that end. 
 
 Returning to St. Helena, the regiment next joined the Florida expedition under 
 General Truman Seymour. Colonel Hawley commanded a brigade consisting of the 
 Seventh Connecticut, Third and Seventh New Hampshire, and Eighth United States 
 colored troops. The Seventh led the assault in the battle of Olustee, February 20th, 
 1864, and also covered the retreat as skirmishers. Few, if any, engagements in the 
 civil war were more stubbornly contested, or more destructive to the combatants. Out 
 of nearly 5000 Union soldiers, about 1900 were killed, wounded, and captured. Of the 
 captured the unwounded were comparatively few. Retreating on Jacksonville, General 
 Seymour immediately fortified that post, and thence forwarded a warm recommenda- 
 tion that Colonel Hawley be promoted for gallant and meritorious service at Olustee. 
 
 In April following the Seventh Connecticut was ordered to Virginia, and in that 
 State, at Gloucester, Colonel Hawley was assigned to the second brigade in the First 
 Division (Terry's) in the Tenth Corps, under Gillmorc, in Butler's Army of the 
 James. There, says the Souvenir of the Centennial: "In May all the armies moved; 
 . Hawley was in the landing upon Bermuda Hundred, the heavy battle of Drury's 
 Bluff, the battles in May and June around Bermuda Hundred, the movement against 
 Petersburg under Gillmore in June, the Deep Bottom and Deep Run (or Fuessell's 
 Mill) battles of August 14th and i6th, after which Generals Terry, D. B. Berry, and 
 B. F. Butler recommended his promotion. Thence his command was sent to the 
 trenches in front,, of Petersburg. His troops were about a month opposite the 
 famous mine, very close to the enemy's lines, and incessantly engaged in picket- 
 firing and fortifying." About the 1 2th of September he left the army for Connecticut, 
 in order to superintend the return, paying off, and discharge of the three years' men 
 of the Sixth and Seventh Regiments, whose terms of service were about to expire. 
 While in New Haven he received his hardly earned promotion. Reaching camp in 
 Virginia after midnight of October 12th, he was actively engaged by sunrise of the 
 13th in the battle on the Derby road to Richmond, north of the James. 
 
 In the engagement of October 27th, on the Newmarket road, he commanded 
 Birney's division of colored troops, to which he had been temporarily assigned. 
 Immediately afterward he was detailed to take 3000 ' picked men and proceed to 
 New York, in order to keep the peace during the Presidential election. The 
 command of the troops in the forts at the Narrows, and on ferry-boats around the 
 city, devolved on General Hawley ; while General B. F. Butler, who w^as in supreme 
 command, remained in the city. In December, General Terry, who had received 
 orders to take Fort Fisher, turned over the command of his division to Hawley, who 
 then held the extreme right of the whole army from Deep Bottom and Newmarket 
 
96 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 heights to a point near Fort Harrison. Relieved by the return of a superior officer, 
 he sought and obtained orders to join his own brigade at Fort Fisher. General Terry 
 welcomed his old friend, and appointed him chief of staff of the reorganized Tenth 
 Corps. On February 22d, 1864, in conjunction with General Schofield, the forces 
 captured Wilmington. The fire of the discomfited rebels, as they were chased from 
 the town, were the last hostile shots he heard in the war. 
 
 Assigned by General Schofield to the command of Wilmington, he found a new 
 class of duties added to those of ordinary military authority. The city was crowded 
 with refugees, of whom 15,000 were dependent on him for food. The political and 
 social reconstruction of his native State also occupied somewhat of his thought. In 
 March, he received from the rebels about 10,000 Union prisoners from Andersonville, 
 Macon, Salisbury, etc. Over 3000 of them were sick. Epidemic typhus broke out 
 among them and the refugees, but was opposed and overcome in the use of wise 
 sanitary measures. In July, 1865, his work in Wilmington completed. General 
 Hawley accepted an invitation from Terry to become his chief of staff at Richmond, 
 in which he occupied the former mansion of Jefferson Davis. The position was one 
 in which all his knowledge of civil and military law was called into earnest exercise. 
 Grave complications were of constant occurrence. The department was under 
 military law. Terry and Hawley exerted themselves successfully to maintain the 
 rights of all parties, and to reconcile the contending claims of discordant classes. 
 The distinguished merits of General Hawley were recognized in October by the 
 brevet of major-general, conferred for gallant and meritorious services throughout the 
 rebellion. With final leave of absence, he returned in the same month to Hartford, 
 but was not discharged from service until January 15th, 1866. 
 
 Within the thirteen years that followed, the country has heard much of the 
 Confederate brigadiers in Congress, and of the efforts to regain by subtle diplomacy 
 that supremacy in the councils of the nation that was forfeited by rebellion in the 
 field. It is matter of congratulation that Connecticut has been wise enough to 
 imitate the example of Southern States and to send one of her own best and bravest 
 brigadiers, in the person of General Hawley, to the halls of legislation at Washington. 
 Not at once, however, was this desirable consummation reached. More immediate 
 domestic honors were first awarded. He was nominated for the chief magistracy of 
 the State by the Republicans, was elected over the Democratic candidate, James E. 
 English, and served from May, 1866, to May, 1867, with acceptance and success. 
 Mr. English was then chosen as his successor, and Governor Hawley declined further 
 candidacy. Private affairs claimed his energies. He effected the consolidation of the 
 Press and the C our ant ; and, adding W. H. Goodrich to his active partners, has 
 published the Courant since 1866. Politician and statesman, in the true sense of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y CLO P^t) I A . 0? 
 
 the words, General Hawley has been a prolific writer and potent speaker in each 
 annual State campaign, and not unfrequently in the campaigns of sister States. In 
 Presidential canvasses he has always been a prominent and eflfective actor, and has 
 acted as delegate or alternate delegate to the national conventions of his own party 
 for many years. In 1864 he attended the Baltimore Convention, and in 1868 was 
 nominated in caucus for the United States Senate. The ''good war Governor," 
 Buckingham, however, obtained the honor, and with the sincere and glad concurrence 
 of his patriotic competitor. General Hawley was president of the National Republican 
 Convention at Chicago, which nominated General Grant for the Presidency, and in 
 his opening address gave utterance to wise sentiments in favor of sound financial 
 measures. Of two or three State conventions he has also been the presiding officer. 
 In 1872, he was secretary of the Committee on Resolutions in the Philadelphia 
 Convention, and was chairman of a similar committee in the Cincinnati Convention 
 of 1876. Here, as in a similar committee of the Free-Soil National Convention of 
 1852, he had, and improved the opportunity of assisting to shape and direct the 
 national polity. In 1872, he received the Republican nomination for the United 
 States Senate, but was defeated in the election by the defection of dissentients, who 
 united with the Democrats and re-elected the Hon. O. S. E^'erry. In September of 
 the same year, he defeated W. W. Eaton in the contest for the vacancy in the First 
 Congressional District, occasioned by the death of Hon. J. L. Strong, and was 
 re-elected in the spring of 1873. During his three years' service he was a member 
 of the Committees on Claims, Centennial Commission, Military Affairs, and Currency 
 and Banking. 
 
 When the U. S. Centennial Commission was organized, in May, 1872, he was 
 elected president, and was subsequently re-elected annually. He had intelligent faith 
 in the usefulness and success of a national industrial exhibition, if properly 
 managed, and held that as the National Government had directed its construction, 
 it should also contribute to the- cost. The financial crisis of 1873 seriously interfered 
 with all plans. Application was made to Congress for a grant of three million dol- 
 lars in aid, and General Hawley, as a member of the House, forcibly advocated a 
 favorable response. The bill failed at the time, but in the winter of 1875-6 Congress 
 loaned the Centennial Board of Finance a million and a half, which proved to be 
 sufficient — thanks to the able aud judicious manner in which the affairs of the 
 Exhibition were administered. In the spring of 1876, the Centennial Commission 
 unanimously requested him to go to Philadelphia, and devote his whole time to the 
 interests of the Great Exhibition. He did so, and in co-operation with Director- 
 General Goshorn, Secretary Campbell, and Finance-President Welsh, of the Centennial 
 Commission, remained on the spot until January ist, 1877 — two months after the 
 7 
 
98 BIOGRAP HICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 close of the most brilliant and imposing international industrial exhibition yet held 
 in the interests of human progress and welfare. At a public meeting in Steinway 
 Hall, New York, December, 1876 General Hawley epitomized the opinions of foreign 
 master mechanics on the mechanical and textile fabrics of the United States. In the 
 manufacture of silk, machinery, sewing-machines, and firearms they acknowledged our 
 excellence. " In printing-presses America leads the way. As makers of paper, scales, 
 etc., America also stands at the head. . . . Our woollens, hardwares, silks, marbles, 
 and mantels were among the best. Our pianos were the best in the world. . . . 
 One of the finest exhibits given (and the one most worthy of profound study) was 
 that of the American people themselves. I have seen a large number of the 8,000,000 
 who came into these grounds, and I never saw an intoxicated man ; I never saw a 
 quarrel or excited scene among all that multitude." In Connecticut itself. Governor 
 Hawley was intimately and influentially identified with all the State arrangements in 
 relation to the Centennial Exhibition, addressed an informal meeting of the Legislature 
 in behalf of its aid, and had the satisfaction of seeing his State contribute in due 
 proportion to the enterprise, and reap the profit of extensive advertisement and 
 enlarged sale of its productions. The unexpended balance* of $3500 from Connecticut's 
 appropriation to the Centennial was devoted by act of the Legislature, in 1877, 
 toward the display of the State's manufactures at the great International Exhibition 
 at Paris in 1878 ; and General Hawley was made an ex-officio member of the Board 
 of Managers to whom the expenditure was intrusted. 
 
 General Hawley is again a member of the National House of Representatives, 
 having been elected from the First Congressional District of Connecticut in 1878. 
 In January, 1881, he was the unanimous choice of his party for the U. S. Senator- 
 ship, and was elected to succeed Senator Eaton, whose term expires in March, 1881. 
 For him it is a fitting field of patriotic and world-wide usefulness, and few, if any, 
 cultivators within it are better qualified for wise, powerful, and far-reaching action. 
 At a large political meeting held in the Opera House at Elmira, in the fall of 
 1879, he was introduced as the orator of the evening by the celebrated humorist, 
 Samuel L. Clemens, better known as " Mark Twain." The introductory speech was 
 as truly characteristic of the introduced as of the introducer, who said : " General 
 Hawley keeps his promises, not only in private but in pubHc. He is an editor who 
 believes what he writes in his own paper. ... He is a square, true, honest man 
 in politics. ... He has never shirked a duty or backed down from any position 
 taken in public life. He has been right every time, and stood there. As Gov- 
 ernor, Congressman, as a soldier, as the head of the Centennial Commission, which 
 increased our trade in every port and pushed American production into all the known 
 world, he has conferred honor and credit upon the United States. He is an 
 
Uvcn^^i-^Vk J/r//i 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 99 
 
 American of Americans. His public trusts liave been many, and never in the 
 slightest did he prove unfaithful. Pure, honest, incorruptible — that is Joseph R» 
 Hawley." 
 
 »OLLEY, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, of Salisbury, ex-Governor of Con- 
 necticut. Born in Salisbury, Litchfield County, August 12th, 1804. His 
 father, John M. HoUey, was born in the same town, September 7th, 1777, 
 and was a successful merchant and manufacturer of iron. 
 The Holley family is of English origin. Numerous branches of the primitive 
 stock flourish in Great Britain, her colonies, and in the United States, under the 
 diverse but kindred names of Holly, Hawley, Halley, and Holley. Old English 
 title-deeds reveal this diversity of orthography in the patronymic of lineal members 
 of the same family. The first one of the name, ancestrally connected with Governor 
 Holley, of whom certain knowledge is possessed, was Luther Holley, who was born 
 in Sharon, Conn., on the 12th of June, 1751; and who, on attaining his majority, 
 removed to Dover, Dutchess County, New York, in which he spent several years of 
 his early manhood. During his residence in that place, he represented the Assembly 
 District in the Legislature of the State, in the year 1 798. Soon after that he became 
 a permanent resident of Salisbury, Conn., in which he spent the remainder of his 
 life, and in which he died in 1826. He carried on the combined business of a 
 general country merchant and of a manufacturer of iron — the ore being taken from 
 the celebrated hematite deposits in the western section of the town. Previous to his 
 
 * 
 
 death, he relinquished the mercantile and manufacturing departments of his affairs to 
 his son, John M. Holley, and retired to his pleasant farm on the shores of Lake 
 Wononscopomuc, or the Round Pond, one of the many charmingly beautiful lakes 
 which adorn that picturesque portion of the State. There, in comparative retirement, 
 he indulged his taste for literature, and agricultural pursuits, and enjoyed the profound 
 respect of his fellow-citizens. He represented the town in three sessions of the 
 General Assembly, and filled minor local offices with efficiency and general acceptance. 
 Luther Holley was enriched by five other sons, vvho distinguished themselves 
 in different walks of public life. Of these, Myron Holley became a citizen of 
 Canandaigua, N. Y., a zealous advocate for the construction of the Erie Canal, 
 
loo BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 an able writer in the exposition of -its advantages and the defense of its claims, 
 one of the canal Commissioners, and an excellent superintendent of the work of 
 construction. Horace Holley was born at Sahsbury in 1781, graduated at Yale 
 College, with distinguished honors, in 1803, became a renowned preacher in 
 Boston, Mass., where he ministered for ten years to a constantly enlarging church 
 and society. In 181 8 he accepted the second of two urgent invitations to assume 
 the presidency of Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky; and died of 
 yellow fever on the high sea, in 1827, while on his w^y to visit family friends 
 in Connecticut. Edward O. Holley resided for many years in the city of Hudson, 
 N. Y., and served for several successive terms as sheriff of Columbia County. 
 Newman led an active business life in Salisbury, and frequently represented the 
 town in the General Assembly. Orville graduated from Yale, and also from Harvard 
 College, practiced law in the city of New York, and subsequently edited a review 
 in the same metropolis. For several years after that he was the editor of the Troy 
 Sentinel, and was then appointed Surveyor-General of the State of New York. 
 
 John M., father of Alexander H. Holley, prosecuted the iron business, in 
 succession to his father, for several years; and in 181 5 contracted a copartnership 
 with John C. Cofftng, under the style and title of Holley & Cofifing, which continued 
 until the decease of the senior member of the firm in 1847. Before the death of 
 Mr. Holley, with the occasional association of other gentlemen, himself and Mr. 
 Coffing had extended their manufacturing enterprise into other portions of Litchfield 
 County, and also into Berkshire County, Mass., with such vigor and success that it 
 had become the largest of its class in all that region. 
 
 John M. Holley was married in the year 1800, to Sally, youngest daughter of 
 Joshua Porter of Salisbury. John M. Holley, Jr., the eldest son of this union, was 
 born at Salisbury in 1802, graduated at Yale in 1822, married a daughter of 
 General Joseph Kirkland of Utica, practised law in Wayne County, N. Y., represented 
 his district in the General Assembly of the State for two sessions, was elected to 
 Congress in 1847, and died during the session of that body in 1848. George W., 
 the third son— Alexander H. being the second — entered the United States Military 
 Academy at West Point, remained there two years, but did not graduate, because 
 his deafness incapacitated him for bearing his part in the military exercises of the 
 school. He is now a resident in the village of Niagara, has represented his district 
 in the State Legislature, and is the author of several valuable works on the history 
 and geology of Niagara Falls. In 1832 he was married to the eldest daughter of 
 Chief Justice Samuel Church. 
 
 The maternal grandfather of Alexander H. Holley — Colonel Joshua Porter — 
 was born in Lebanon, Conn., graduated at Yale in 1754, settled in Salisbury soon 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. loi 
 
 afterward, and resided there until the close of his long life, in 1825, at the age of 
 ninety-five. No man was ever so well and continuously known in the Legislature 
 of Connecticut as he ; for he served in that assembly as the representative of his 
 town no less than fifty-eight times. He was also the incumbent of sundry minor local 
 offices in town and county for many years. His sons, Augustus and Peter B., 
 settled in Western New York early in the present century. The former was an 
 efficient pioneer, purchased large tracts of land in the vicinity of Niagara River, 
 and settled in the village of Niagara, of which he was one of the earliest inhabitants. 
 He also represented his district for several terms in the General Assembly. Peter 
 B., the younger son of Col. Joshua Porter, graduated at Yale College, practised 
 law in Canandaigua for some years, moved to the frontier, was elected to Congress 
 in 1809 and 181 r, and was again elected soon after the war of 181 2. During part 
 of the administration of President John Quincy Adams, he held the post of 
 Secretary of War. He also acted as American commissioner in the settlement of 
 the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions subsequent 
 to the war of 181 2. In that second struggle with the mother country he served 
 as major-general of volunteers, and participated in several engagements on the 
 frontier, in association with Generals Scott and Brown. 
 
 Governor A- H. Holley has spent the whole of his business life in his native 
 town, in whose mining, manufacturing, commercial, and social affairs he has been a prime 
 factor. In 1844 he established one of the earliest manufactories of pocket cutlery in 
 this country. It has attained an excellent reputation for the superiority of its products, 
 has been enlarged from time to time, and is still in successful operation. In May, 
 1854, Mr. Holley was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State on the same ticket 
 with Henry Button, of New Haven, as Governor. His political affiliations have 
 uniformly been with the exponents and supporters of free institutions. His address 
 to the Senate of Connecticut, at the close of its session in 1854, attests the deep 
 interest he felt in our national destiny, and his anxiety to preserve the territory of 
 Kansas, which was then applying for a State Government, for the exclusive occu- 
 pancy of free citizens. In 1857 he was elected Governor, with A. A. Burnham as 
 Lieutenant-Governor, and in that year recommended biennial sessions of the Legis- 
 lature ; a recommendation which was adopted by the General Assembly of 1878, 
 but not approved by the people in the October election of 1879. While incum- 
 bent of the chief magistracy of his commonwealth, he met the Governors of other 
 States at Richmond, Va., to which they had been invited to take part in the 
 ceremony of unveiling Crawford's statue of Washington. On that occasion, at the 
 corporation dinner given by the city, he patriotically rebuked Congressman Barnett 
 of Virginia for giving utterance to the narrow sentiment that no other State had 
 
I02 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 a right to claim a title in the name and fame of George Washington ; and was 
 approvingly sustained by the members of the Washington family, and also by many 
 others. In 1857, during the ceremony of unveiling the statue of General Warren 
 at Bunker Hill, Boston, Mass., Governor Holley delivered an address containing an 
 earnest appeal for the preservation of the Union of the States, which was warmly 
 indorsed by a speech from Senator James Mason of Virginia — the Mason who, in 
 connection with like-minded associates, so zealously labored to destroy the Union 
 within three years from that very time. 
 
 The early political associations of Governor Holley were with the Whig party. 
 In 1844 he was a delegate to the convention that nominated Henry Clay for the 
 Presidency, and was also a delegate at large from the State of Connecticut to the 
 convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency in i860. When 
 the long incubated scheme of rebellion was hatched at Fort Sumter, in 1861, and 
 freedom rang the tocsin in every New England town, he was among the prompt- 
 est and most earnest in resistance to the monster which threatened to destroy the 
 national life, and all the human political hopes that grew out of the sublime 
 American attempt to demonstrate the feasibility and value of popular self-government. 
 Years of watching and weary waiting followed recourse to arms, but confident 
 expectancy was rewarded at length by the consolidation of that Union for which 
 he had pleaded so eloquently at Richmond and on Bunker Hill. 
 
 Governor! Holley has not, at any time, confined himself exclusively to his 
 private business, but has illustrated a most helpful interest in all current public 
 improvements. He contributed and procured funds for the construction of the 
 Housatonic Railroad, and assisted in the extension of the Harlem Railroad from 
 Dover to Chatham, N. Y. In financial circles he has also been active and influ- 
 ential. He assisted in establishing the Iron Bank at Falls Village, Conn., was one 
 of the directors for twelve years, and for two years was president of that institution. 
 In 1869-70 he took an active part in the organization- and management of the 
 Connecticut Western Railroad, and has been a director of the corporation from the 
 date of its formation. He has made himself somewhat familiar with the physical 
 aspects, as well as with the business and political life, of his native land ; has made 
 occasional tours in Europe ; and now — in retirement from most of the duties in which 
 he has been so stirring and potent — resides in his beautiful home at Lakeville, 
 surrounded by the comforts and luxuries of life, enjoying the respect of his fellow- 
 citizens, and waifmg in green and healthful old age for the summons that comes 
 to all the world's best toilers with welcome and blessing. 
 
 Governor Holley was married in October, 1831, to Jane M., daughter of Eras- 
 tus Lyman, of Goshen, Conn., by whom he had one son, Alexander Lyman Holley, 
 
^// /6 f^^i^^^^^^^^^rz^ 
 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA 103 
 
 of New York, who graduated at Brown University, has published several scientific 
 works, and in 1878 received the degree of LL.D. from his Alma Mater. He intro- 
 duced the art of making Bessemer steel into the United States. Mrs. HoUey, 
 his mother, died in September, 1832, and in September, 1835, •'^''- HoUey married 
 Marcia Cofiing, daughter of John C. Coffing, his father's partner. Several children 
 were the fruit of this union, but only two of them arrived at mature age. Of these, 
 John Coffing FloUey, graduated with honor at Yale in 1859, niarried a daughter of 
 George W. Stirling, of Poughkeepsie, paid some attention to business, but, owing 
 to his feeble physical condition, was unable to do much, except to write occasion- 
 ally for the public press. He travelled, more or less, in pursuit of health, and 
 finally embarked on a sea voyage for San Francisco, where he died in 1865. Marcia 
 C, the second child, is_ the wife of William B. Rudd, of Lakeville. Mrs. Marcia 
 C. Holley died in March, 1854 ; and in November, 1856, Mr. H^olley was married 
 the third time, to Sarah C, daughter of Thomas Day, who was Secretary of State 
 of Connecticut for twenty-five years, by annual election. 
 
 ||IGELOW, HOBART BALDWIN, of New Haven, Governor of Connecti- 
 cut. Born in the adjoining town of North Haven in 1834. His father, 
 Levi L. Bigelow, is a native and resident of the same town. His mother, 
 nee BeHnda Pierpont, is the daughter of John Pierpont, who was born in 
 Connecticut, and was by occupation a farmer. The Pierpont and Bigelow famihes 
 have made honorable records, both in the Old World and the New, by their marked 
 energy, enterprise, and genius ; and have illustrated the best qualities of modern 
 civilization in all the varied departments of human activity. During the boyhood 
 of H. B. Bigelow, business reverses overtook his father, who was then a manufacturer 
 of chain pumps in Berkshire County, Mass., and threw the son, at the age of sixteen, 
 upon his own resources. Native endowments, strengthened and disciplined by such 
 culture as neighboring country schools had afforded, were then called into thoughtful 
 and positive exercise. Like many eminently successful men, his youthful imagi- 
 nation had often dwelt upon the city as the theatre best fitted for the display of 
 his powers, and the field that was most likely to yield the richest harvest in repay- 
 ment of busy toil. To the city he went, and found employment with the New 
 Haven Manufacturing Company, Two years afterward, at the age of nineteen, he 
 
I04 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 entered the establishment of Ives & Smith, founders and machinists, and, from the 
 lowly position assumed at his first coming, ascended by successive stages to the 
 management, and ultimately to the proprietorship of the factory. 
 
 With immense force of character, modified by practical experience and enlarged 
 acquaintance with the world, Mr. Bigelow now found himself at the beginning of 
 the road leading to assured competence and corresponding social distinction. The 
 opportunity was present, and he seized and utilized it. Others sought business 
 associations with him, and among them Mr. Henry Bushnell, inventor of the com- 
 pressed air motor. Together they contracted with the National Government, in 
 1 86 1, for the supply of "gun parts" for 300,000 Springfield rifles. Nearly three 
 years were required to fulfil the contract, during which Mr. Bigelow gave employ- ' 
 ment to about two hundred men. When the war closed, the demand for his man- 
 ufactured products increased, and enforced the removal of his works from the old 
 locality to Grapevine Point, where they are now situated. The superior quality 
 and workmanship of the boilers there fabricated, and the remarkable excellence of 
 the engines there constructed, are as well known in St. Johns, N. B., in Califor- 
 nia, and in the West Indies, to which they are exported, as in New Haven and 
 its vicinity. In 1864, he began the manufacture of quartz-crushers for the mining 
 districts of the West, and conducted a large business therein, until the depression of 
 the mining interests, simultaneously with those of the financial affairs of the country, 
 occasioned such diminution in the demand that he relinquished furthei' production. 
 Remarkably successful as a manufacturer, Mr. Bigelow is no less efficient in fiscal 
 matters. With them also he is largely identified, and particularly in the Merchants' 
 National Bank, of which he is a director. 
 
 The municipal honors received by Mr. Bigelow are only commensurate with 
 the ability and worth of such a citizen to the community. Soon after he began 
 business on his own account, the popular estimation of his qualities was revealed 
 in his election to the Common Council, and subsequently to the Board of Alder- 
 men. A year of public service in each body was all that could be spared by the 
 exactions of business ; and he continued in private life until early in the present 
 decade, when he was appointed a member of the Board of Supervisors by the 
 Common Council, and held that position for five years. In 1874, he consented to 
 serve as member of the Board of Fire Commissioners for a term of three years, 
 under appointment of Mayor Lewis, but refused further service on the termination of 
 that period. In 1875, he was elected a member of the lower house of the State 
 Legislature, by the Republicans of New Haven, and while there acquired further 
 popularity by his talents and address, .and additional reputation by his action on 
 important committees, and especially in that on Banks, On the 3d of December 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 105 
 
 1878, he was elected to the mayoralty of New Haven, by a majority of 2387 
 over W. R. Shelton, Esq., the opposing candidate. This election was a gratifying 
 testimonial to his intellectual, moral, and social value ; eflFected as it was, not entirely 
 by the political party with which he is affiliated, but by citizens of all shades of 
 political opinion. The wise and liberal character of past action, consistent as it had 
 been with shrewdness and prudence, was justly regarded as a sufficient guarantee 
 for the sound discretion and enlightened policy of future administration, and as 
 prophetic of the wider spheres of public usefulness to which, if life were spared, 
 he would not improbably be called. 
 
 Mr. Bigelow was one of the delegates from Connecticut to the National Repub- 
 lican Convention held at Chicago in 1880, and contributed largely to the ensuing 
 triumph of his political compatriots at the polls. He was also elected in the same 
 year to the chief magistracy of his State, which office he now efficiently and 
 worthily fills. 
 
 Governor Bigelow was married on the 6th of May, 1857, to Eleanor, daughter 
 of the' late Philo Lewis, of New Haven. 
 
 'NGERSOLL, CHARLES ROBERTS, LL.D., of New Haven, ex-Governor 
 of Connecticut. Born in New Haven, September i6th, 1821. His father, the 
 Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll, was one of the leading men of the State, and was 
 equally prominent in legal and in political circles. His mother, nte Margaret 
 Van den Heuvel, of New York, was a woman of rare excellence. The Ingersoll fam- 
 ily is one of the most notable in Connecticut, and also in other States. Its members 
 have occupied conspicuous social positions in colonial as well as in federal times. 
 " One of Mr. Ingersoll's uncles," says the Souvenir of the Centennial Exhibition, 
 " was Judge of the United States District Court of Connecticut, and another was 
 an officer in the United States^ Navy. His brother, General Colin M. Ingersoll, 
 was representative to Congress from the New Haven District from 1850 to 1854; 
 another brother is a distinguished divine in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
 another served for many years as an officer in the United States Navy." 
 
 Governor Ingersoll received his early education in his native city, and at the 
 age of fifteen entered Yale College, from which he graduated four years afterward. 
 Next, he visited Europe as a member of the official family of Captain Voorhes, who 
 was his uncle, and also commander of the United States frigate Preble, which was 
 blown to pieces, in 1863, while in the harbor of Pensacola, by the explosion of 
 
io6 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 her powder magazine. At the end of two years, during which he remained abroad, 
 he returned to New Haven and entered the Yale Law School, in which he enjoyed 
 the benefit of two years' instruction from Judge Samuel J. Hitchcock, Chief Justice 
 David Daggett, and the Hon. Isaac H. Townsend. Admitted to the bar in 1845, 
 he associated himself in practice with his distinguished father in the same year, and 
 for the thirty years following, until the decease of that gentleman, sustained the 
 relation of law-partner to him. In that lengthened period he was engaged as 
 counsellor in numerous important suits, whose progress and issue gained for him an 
 excellent reputation as a learned, upright, able, and successful lawyer. 
 
 Brought up under the eye of his father, and — with the exception of his term 
 of foreign travel — always in intimate connection with him, the subject of politics 
 naturally shared much of his attention. With the science of government, the elder 
 Ingersoll, who had studied deeply and widely while in Congress, and also while 
 minister to Russia, was intimately acquainted. In his party relations, he sought 
 controlling influence in the State and nation solely for the purpose of preserving 
 their peace, safety, and prosperity ; of augmenting their strength and resources ; of 
 protecting their citizens in the enjoyment of natural and constitutional rights, and 
 of conserving and improving their morals. In the same sense, and with the same ends 
 in view, the younger Ingersoll became, and has continued to be, a politician. Mere 
 contrivance, artifice, or struggle for official advancement is as alien to his nature as it 
 is to the true character of political science. Public posts have sought his incum- 
 bency, although he has never sought them. " He has declined more nominations 
 than he has accepted, and refused more offices than he has filled." He represented 
 the town of New Haven in the lower house of the Slate Legislature throupfhout the 
 sessions of 1856-7-8, occupied influential places on committees, and made his cul- 
 tured power as a speaker felt on the floor. In 1864 he was a member of the 
 National Democratic Convention at Chicago, which nominated General McClellan 
 for the Presidency, and acted in the Committee on Resolutions. In 1866 and 1871 
 he also served as representative of New Haven in the State Legislature. Thorough 
 and comprehensive knowledge of legislation, oratorical power, unsullied honor, and 
 tried integrity commended him to the confidence of his constituents, who sought 
 his services as State Senator. His aversion to public distinctions induced him to 
 refuse a nomination, which because of his powerful influence was tantamount to an 
 election. In 1872 he was again chosen as delegate to the National Convention at 
 Baltimore which nominated Greeley and Brown for the chief national magisterial 
 offices, and acted as chairman of the Connecticut delegation. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll was first nominated by the Democrats of Connecticut for the 
 office of Governor in 1873. Eminent fitness dictated the choice. He did not 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 107 
 
 desire the honor, and shrank from the responsibilities associated with it. Much 
 persuasion induced him to consent to the general wish. In the election he ran far 
 ahead of his ticket in his own town and county. His administration proved to be 
 so sensible and judicious that he was consecutively chosen again for a second, third, 
 and fourth term. Political opponents were warm in his praise, and one of them 
 truthfully affirmed that " Very few men could be named for the office by that party 
 [the Democratic] in whose success the people of opposing views would so cheer- 
 fully acquiesce." The whole number of votes cast for Governor on April 5th, 1875, 
 was 100,983 ; of which Mr. Ingersoll received 53,752, and his competitor, Mr. Greene, 
 44,272. It was the largest number of votes for Governor ever polled in Connecti- 
 cut. In that year Governor Ingersoll signed the bill which had received a two 
 thirds vote of each house, providing for, and submitting to the people an amendment 
 to the Constitution of the State, which made the official term of all State officers 
 and State Senators biennial, changed the date of the annual elections from April to 
 November, and terminated his own official duties as chief magistrate in January, 1877. 
 
 In 1876 he had the honor of being numbered with the "Centennial" Governors 
 of the several States composing the American Republic. The very creditable repre- 
 sentation of the great manufacturing and other capabilities of Connecticut, made at 
 the International Exhibition, held in Philadelphia, was largely due to his wise and 
 persistent energy. He foresaw the benefit that must accrue from such an enterprise, 
 and in his public capacity did what he could to make it a decided and gratifying 
 success. 
 
 On his retirement from the gubernatorial chair Governor Ingersoll carried with 
 him the honest admiration and ' unfeigned praise of political friends and opponents 
 alike. In the comparative privacy of unofficial life he indulges scholarly tastes, and 
 charms all who come in social contact with him by his unaffected courtesy and 
 graceful, dignified bearing. His wife was a daughter of the late Admiral Gregory, 
 and in her society, and that of their children. Governor Ingersoll has found some 
 of the purest and most ennobling pleasures that fall to the lot of humanity. 
 
io8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 'OPPIN, WILLIAM WARNER, ex-Governor of Rhode Island, son of 
 Benjamin and Esther Phillips (Warner) Hoppin, was born in Providence, 
 !* September ist, 1807. He graduated at Yale College in the class of 1828. 
 Among his classmates were President F. A. P. Barnard, of Columbia 
 College, New York City ; Judge William Strong, of the United States Supreme 
 Court, and Hon. John Van Buren. Mr. Hoppin studied law at the Law School of 
 Yale College, under the tuition of Judge Daggett and Professor Hitchcock, and was 
 admitted to the bar in 1830. He has filled various important offices, both in 
 Providence and in the State. . He was chosen successor of Governor Philip Allen, and 
 was in office from 1854 to 1858, when he resigned. He married, June 8th, 1832, 
 Frances A. F., daughter of Titus Street, of New Haven, and only sister of Augustus 
 Russell Street, the munificent benefactor of Yale College and founder of the Yale 
 School of Art. Two sons are now living — Frederick S., a lawyer, of Providence, and 
 W. W. Hoppin, Jr., a lawyer, of New York. He is a hereditary member of the 
 Society of Cincinnati. 
 
 *^* The above sketch furnished by himself. 
 
 URNSIDE, AMBROSE EVERETT, United States Senator from Rhode 
 Island. Born May 23d, 1824, at Liberty, Indiana. After preliminary educa- 
 tion in that State, young Burnside received appointment to a cadetship in 
 ^ the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he remained 
 from July ist, 1843, to July ist, 1847, when he was graduated and promoted in the 
 army to brevet second lieutenant, in the Second Artillery, July ist, 1847. He 
 afterward served in the war with Mexico, 1847-8, in the engagements near and at 
 the city of Mexico. His commission as second lieutenant, in the Second Artillery, 
 was dated July ist, 1847. 
 
 Lieutenant Burnside was next stationed in garrison at Fort Adams, Rhode 
 Island, in 1848-9; then performed frontier duty at Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 
 1849-50. There he was wounded in a skirmish with the Jacarillo Apache Indians, 
 on the 23d of August, 1849. In 1850-51 in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 
 from which he was called to serve with the Mexican Boundary Commission, from 
 April, 1 85 1, to March i6th, 1852. On December 12th, 1851, he was promoted to a 
 first lieutenancy in the Third Artillery, and was again stationed in garrison at Fort 
 Adams, R. I., 1852-3. In the latter year, October 2d, he resigned his commission, 
 
Metropoln L 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 109 
 
 and entered into civil life as a manufacturer of firearms, at Bristol, R. I., in which 
 occupation he continued until 1858. During that period, from 1855 to 1857, he 
 officiated as major-general of the Rhode Island militia. In 1856 he became prominent 
 in the mechanical, as well as in the military pursuits of Hfe, as the inventor of the 
 "Burnside breech-loading rifle," and in the same year was a member of the Board 
 of Visitors to the U. S. Military Academy— his stern old Alma Mater at West 
 Point. In 1858-9 he was cashier of the Land Department of the Illinois Central 
 Railroad Company — a position for which the general efficiency and incorruptibility 
 of a West Point graduate admirably fitted him. In 1860-61 he was treasurer of 
 the same great corporation. 
 
 During the rebellion of the seceding States, 1861-65, he re-entered the military 
 service of his imperilled country, aided in the defense of the city of Washington, 
 D. C, in May, 1 861— having been commissioned on the 2d of that month as 
 colonel of Rhode Island Volunteers — participated in Major-General Paterson's opera- 
 tions about Cumberland, Maryland, June, 1861 ; also in the defense of Washington in 
 July and August — during which time he bore a conspicuous part in the Manassas 
 campaign, and at the battle of Bull Run, on July 21st, 1861. 
 
 On the 2d of August, 1861, he was mustered out of service, but re-entered it 
 on the 6th with the commission of brigadier-general of U. S. Volunteers. lie 
 then served in command of a provisional brigade in the vicinity of Washington, 
 D. C, from September 3d to October 23d, 1861 ; in organizing the coast division 
 of the Army of the Potomac, at Annapolis, Maryland, from October 23d, 1861, to 
 January 8th, 1862. On the 13th of the latter month, he was intrusted with the 
 command of the Department of North Carolina, and on the i8th of March, 1862, 
 received his commission as major-general of U. S. Volunteers. 
 
 On the 13th of January, 1862, he sailed from Fortress Monroe for North 
 Carolina ; Commodore L. M. Goldsborough being in command of the naval part 
 of the expedition. Doubling Cape Henry, he moved southward to Hatteras Inlet, 
 and thence up Pamlico and Croatan sounds to Roanoake Island, where on the 
 8th of February he stormed the enemy's fortifications, and captured about 2700 
 prisoners, including many valuable officers. There, in harmony with the prevailing 
 Union theory of the manner in which the war for the suppression of the seces- 
 sionist movement should be conducted, he and Commodore Goldsborough issued a 
 proclamation to the people of North Carolina, in which he said : 
 
 " The Government asks only that its authority may be recognized ; and we 
 repeat, in no manner or way does it desire to interfere with your laws, con- 
 stitutionally established, your institutions of any kind whatever, your property of any 
 sort, or your usages in any respect." 
 
no BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 The people at large had not yet come to the conclusion that all rights guaf- 
 anteed by the Constitution had been forfeited by rebellion against it, and by repudi- 
 ation of all its solemn and binding obligations. As a military commander, he 
 wisely followed public opinion, instead of attempting to create or lead it. 
 
 General Burnside next concentrated his forces at Hatteras Inlet, for an attack 
 upon Newbern, at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers, and the most 
 important seaport of North Carolina. Commodore Goldsborough had, in the mean 
 time, been relieved by Commodore Rowan. A landing was effected at Slocum's 
 Creek, i8 miles below the city, and from that point the intrenchments and foi"- 
 tifications were successively carried, and by evening of March 15th the army was 
 in possession of the city, of 69 rebel cannon, two steamboats, large quantities of 
 stores and munitions, and some 500 prisoners. Fort Macon fell on the 25th of 
 April, and with its garrison of 500 men, remained in the hands of the National 
 army. Numerous additional captures followed, whereby his division of 15,000 men 
 was widely dispersed, and converted into a possessory rather than an offensive force. 
 On the 4th of July, 1862, he was ordered, by telegraph from Washington, to hasten 
 with all his available forces to Fortress Monroe, where he arrived three days afterward. 
 
 The immediate effect of Burnside's brilliant successes in North Carolina, in 
 connection with the movement of McClellan's grand army up the peninsula, was 
 to compel the evacuation of Norfolk by the rebels, an'd the destruction of their 
 famous ironclad, the Merrimac. In the bloody and indecisive engagement at An- 
 tietam, September 1 7th, his corps held the extreme left of the national army, 
 opposite the lowest of the three bridges spanning the Antietam, and carried not 
 only the bridge, but the heights beyond, some of his troops reaching even the out- 
 skirts of Sharpsburg. On the 8th of November, he reluctantly succeeded General 
 McClellan in the command of the Army of the Potomac, but could not refuse the 
 unsought post without positive disobedience to orders. The devotion of the prin- 
 cipal, and of most of the subordinate, officers to the displaced commander was 
 such as to leave but a poor chance for their hearty and unquestioning support to 
 his successor. Patriotism, however, rose superior to disappointment, and none could 
 have fought more valiantly than did they, and most of their respective commands, 
 at the unsuccessful battle of Fredericksburg on the 13th of December. " But for 
 the fog, and the unexpected and unavoidable delay in building the bridges, which 
 gave the enemy twenty-four hours to concentrate his forces in his strong position,' 
 Burnside would almost certainly have succeeded in his attempt to advance on Rich- 
 mond by that route. As it was, he came very near to success. Failing to accom- 
 plish the main object, he remained in order of battle for two days, unmolested by the 
 enemy, after which he recrossed to the left bank of the Rappahannock, without 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO PJ£D I A . iii 
 
 loss of men or property. Horace Greeley, in his American Conflict, vol. ii., p. 349, 
 remarks that " General Burnside's errors in this movement were errors of judgment 
 only ; and these were nobly redeemed by his subsequent conduct and bearing." His 
 magnanimity and generosity in his report of the battle were unusually conspicuous. 
 Had he been permitted to retain the command, the results of his next movement 
 toward Richmond might have been wholly different. Genius and boldness marked its 
 conception, as did promptitude and vigor the attempts that were made to carry it 
 out. But in addition to a powerful, disciplined, and wary enemy in front. General 
 Burnside had to contend with wily and insubordinate officers in his own camp 
 Clandestine communications were made to President Lincoln that misrepresented 
 both the commander and his army. When the latter discovered the mischievous 
 machinations of the cabal, he prepared a general order dismissing them from the 
 service ; but was persuaded, before publishing it, to submit it to the President. 
 Mr. Lincoln, instead of approving the order, decided, after consultation with his 
 official advisers, not to approve it, and also relieved General Burnside — as was 
 stated — ai his own request. Against this Burnside protested as most unjust, and 
 pressed his demand that his resignation should be accepted instead. This de- 
 mand he subsequently and nobly withdrew, in deference to the entreaties of friends, 
 who begged him to serve wherever his aid might be required, and to allow any 
 order deemed essential to the public welfare to be published. The sacrifice of 
 professional pride that was thus required was patriotically made, in order to further 
 the great ends of the conflict. 
 
 On the 26th of March, 1863, General Burnside was assigned to the command 
 of the Department of the Ohio. His old Ninth Corps was dispatched with him, 
 in order to effect the liberation of loyal, but crushed and suffering. East Tennes- 
 see. On the 1 6th of August, having thoroughly organized and equipped his com- 
 mand — about 20,000 strong — at Camp Nelson, near Richmond, Ky., he commenced 
 his advance on Knoxville, without waiting for the return of the Ninth Corps, which 
 had been sent to the aid of General Grant at Vicksburg. By the 3d of Sep- 
 tember he had reached that city, where he was welcomed "with such an outpouring 
 of enthusiastic loyalty as had rarely been equalled." Long-hidden national flags 
 waved from almost every house. " The cheers and fond greetings and happy tears 
 of the assembled thousands attested their fervent hope and trust that the national 
 authority and protection, for which they had prayed and pined through two long, 
 weary years, would never again be expelled from their city." On the 9th he arrived 
 at Cumberland Gap, and compelled the surrender of the rebel General Frazier, 
 with his 2000 men and 14 guns. In a subsequent contest with Longstreet, he repulsed 
 that able general with masterly ability, and remained in possession of East Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
XI2 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Burnside's opinions as to the best methods of dealing with the rebels had by 
 this time been considerably modified. On the 3d of April, 1863, he put forth a 
 general order, in which he proclaimed that henceforth, 
 
 "All persons found within our Hues who commit acts for the benefit of the 
 enemies of our country, will be tried as spies or traitors, and, if convicted, will 
 suffer death. . . . The habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy will not be 
 allowed in this department. Persons committing such offenses will be at once 
 arrested with a view to being tried, as above stated, or sent beyond our lines into 
 the lines of their friends. It must be distinctly understood that treason, expressed 
 or implied, will not be tolerated in this department." The notorious Vallandigham 
 was soon arrested under this order, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to close 
 confinement till the end of the war. The President modified the sentence into a 
 direction to send Mr. V. through the military lines into the Southern Confederacy, 
 and in case of his return to imprison him as prescribed by the sentence of the 
 court. The convict was duly forwarded by General Rosecrans to his secessionist 
 friends, but only remained with them for a few weeks ; taking a blockade-runner 
 to Nassau, and thence making his way to Canada. His sympathizers in Ohio, 
 New York, and other States, made strong representations on his case to President 
 Lincoln, whose legal and constitutional arguments signally refuted theirs, while they 
 established the wisdom and justice of his own procedure, and by consequence, that 
 of General Burnside. 
 
 On the 23d of April, 1864, Burnside, who had been reorganizing and receiving 
 large accessions to his (Ninth) corps in Maryland, crossed the Potomac and joined 
 Meade's army, thus raising the effective strength of that army to considerably more 
 than 100,000 men. On the 4th of May, he followed Hancock and other corps 
 commanders into the tangled labyrinth known as the Wilderness, and arrived at 
 the front by forced marches on the night of the 5th, when his corps was distributed 
 to the points where it seemed to be most needed. On the 6th the heroic Ninth 
 Corps was thrown in between Hancock and Warren, so as to give our line the 
 full strength of our infantry. In that position it aided in the repulse of Hill's 
 and Longstreet's corps with heavy loss to the enemy ; Lpngstreet himself being 
 disabled for months. On the 9th of May, Burnside held position on the left of 
 the Union army, and fought with a determined gallantry best expressed by Grant's 
 pithy bulletin on the morning of the nth, in which he said: "I propose to fight 
 it out on this line, if it takes all summer." Afterward, on the right of our army, 
 in conjunction with Warren he delivered charge after charge upon the enemy's 
 position at Spottsylvania Court House, with dauntless courage and daring. The 
 mutual carnage was fearful ; and if Burnside was not everywhere successful, it was 
 
BIOGRAP HICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 113 
 
 simply because success under such circumstances was impossible. At Cold Harbor, 
 June 2d, 1864, he executed a critical flank movement with his usual resolution. 
 On the 3d his corps was stationed on Warren's right and rear, and at one point 
 in the engagement " swung two of his divisions around to flank the enemy's left, 
 which he hotly engaged, and must have worsted had the battle along our front 
 been protracted." On the 14th and 15th, in company with Wright, he crossed the 
 Chickahominy at Jones's bridge, moved thence to Charles City Court House, and 
 v&ry soon his " guns were thundering at the southern approaches to the rebel capital." 
 
 At Petersburg, Burnside's corps held a position directly in front of the city, 
 " including a point where our lines, owing to the nature of the ground, had been 
 pushed up to within 150 yards of the enemy's, where a fort projected beyond 
 their average front." Under this fort a mine had been run from a convenient 
 ravine within the National lines, and the morning of July 30th was fixed for 
 springing it. At 4.35 a.m. the mine was exploded, its garrison annihilated, and a 
 gigantic crater 150 feet long, 60 wide, and 25 to 30 deep, occupied the spot where 
 the fort had stood. Had Burnside possessed the right kind of military material at 
 the time, the charge which followed might have been as splendidly successful as it 
 proved to be a disastrous failure. 
 
 From August 13th, 1864, to April 15th, 1865, when he resigned, General Burn- 
 side was on leave of absence, and awaiting orders. 
 
 Resuming the pursuits of civil life, he adopted the profession of a civil engineer, 
 and followed that in 1865-66. In 1864 he became a director of the lUinois Central 
 Railroad Company, and in 1867 of the Narragansett Steamship Company. In 1865 
 he accepted the office of president of the Cincinnati and Martinsville Railroad Com- 
 pany ; in 1866 that of president of the Rhode Island Locomotive Works at Providence, 
 R. I.; and in 1867 that of president of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad 
 Company. In 1866 he was elected Governor and Captain-General of the State of 
 Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and was re-elected in 1867-68. In 
 1870 he visited Europe, and received the distinguished compliment, due to his 
 professional standing and intellectual abilities, of admission within the German and 
 French lines in and around Paris. On that occasion he acted as a medium of 
 communication between the hostile nations in the interests of conciliation. On the 
 4th of March, 1875, having been elected to the United States Senate, by the 
 Republican party as the successor of William Sprague, Independent, he took his 
 seat in the chamber of that august and influential legislative corps. Since then, his 
 services have been those of an enlightened statesman and independent thinker — 
 singularly free from narrow prejudice and temporary expediency. His term of 
 service will expire on the 3d of March, 1881. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 NTHONY, HENRY B., of Providence, Senator of the United States from 
 Rhode Island. Born in Coventry, R. I, April ist, 1815. After the usual 
 academic education, he entered Brown University at Providence, and grad- 
 ^3 uated therefrom in due course and with honor. 
 
 Selecting the journalistic profession, he next assumed charge of the Providence 
 yo7irnal, and pursued a successful editorial career until 1849, when he was elected 
 Governor of Rhode Island. In 1850 he was honored by a second election, but after 
 filling- the annual term of office, declined further continuance therein. In 1859 he 
 took his seat in the United States Senate— to which he had been elected as a 
 Union Republican — as the successor of Philip Allen, Democrat. In 1864, 1870, and 
 1876 he was re-elected to the same position. On the 23d of March, 1869, he was 
 elected President of the Senate, pro tempore, and was re-elected thereto on the loth 
 of March, 1871. His term of service expires March 3d, 1883. 
 
 Of 
 
 M PRAGUE, WILLIAM, ex-Senator of the United States from Rhode Island. 
 
 i^ttk Born at Cranston, R. I., September 12th, 1830. He is well known as one 
 ■^ of the principal manufacturers of plain and printed cotton fabrics. His 
 grandfather established, and his father and uncle subsequently carried on, 
 the celebrated print works, which were among the first in that branch of industrial 
 art established in the United States. His father was murdered in 1844 ; and he 
 subsequently became partner with his uncle. 
 
 From i860 to 1863 Mr. Sprague was Governor of Rhode Island. In 1861, in 
 the hour of the nation's extremity, he proffered a regiment and battery of artillery 
 to President Lincoln for service in the Union cause. He, himself, took the field 
 with them, having received his commission as brigadier-general. 
 
 In the battle of Bull Run, General Sprague bore a prominent part, and had his 
 horse shot under him. He also served in several actions during the peninsular 
 campaign. In 1862 he was chosen United States Senator, and was made chairman 
 of the Committee on Manufactures. Re-elected in 1868, he next served as chairman 
 of the Committee on Public Lands. His public official service closed in 1875. 
 Both in business and political, as well as in military affairs. Senator Sprague has an 
 honorable record, and is entitled to be numbered among the benefactors of the 
 American people. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. iig 
 
 IPPITT, HENRY, of Providence, ex-Governor of Rhode Island. Born in 
 Providence, R. I., October gth, 1818. 
 
 Governor Lippitt is descended from an ancient and honorable English 
 stock, and is connected with a family to which, as much as to any other, 
 the foundations of American industrial art on a large scale are attributable. With 
 the Revolutionary history of the country they are also prominently identified. 
 In the annals of Rhode Island, from the very inception of the commonwealth, 
 their patronymic frequently appears. John Lippitt, the first American progenitor, 
 came to this country from England about 1636, and joined Roger Wilhams at 
 Providence prior to 1638. In 1647 he was appointed one of the commissioners 
 charged with the duty of organizing the government of the colony under the charter 
 granted by the ParHament of England. In [655 he removed to Warwick, R. I., 
 purchased a large tract of land, and engaged in agriculture. His descendants, for 
 several generations, likewise addicted themselves to the same pursuits. 
 
 Christopher Lippitt, the great-grandson of the original settler, became the father 
 of twelve children ; of whom Christopher and Charles were among the first to embark 
 in the manufacture of cotton fabrics in Rhode Island. In them constructive enter- 
 prise was united with destructive energy. In other words, they were intelligently 
 bent on breaking the fetters which bound the colonies to the mother-country, and 
 on raising them to the dignity of independent republican States. Federative nation- 
 ality for all the Americo-Europeans was the patriotic end to which they, in common 
 with many others, aspired, and to which they applied all their strength and resources. 
 Both were excellent officers of the Continental army ; and Christopher, in particular, 
 gained distinction as commander of one of the Rhode Island regiments at a very 
 critical epoch in the Revolutionary struggle. On the expiry of his commission, he 
 returned, like Cincinnatus, to his farm, but again emerged from his retirement in 
 1780, to aid as brigadier-general of the Rhode Island militia in the defence of New- 
 port against the threatened attack of a British expedition. Thirty years followed, in 
 which General Lippitt occupied himself with the duties of husbandry, while his 
 brother Charles discharged those pertaining to local merchandise in Providence. 
 Then came the change in the direction of energy to manufacturing pursuits. The 
 Pawtuxet River, flowing through the town of Warwick, presented — at several falls of 
 considerable magnitude — eligible sites for the erection of factories whose machinery 
 should be driven by water-power. The mill privileges thus offered attracted the 
 attention of William Almy and Obadiah Brown, the partners of Samuel Slater; and 
 when the first manufacturing experiment at Pawtucket had become a demonstrated 
 success, they, in connection with Joseph Allen and other residents of Warwick, 
 established the second factory in Rhode Island, at what is now the village of Cen- 
 
tt6 Biographical encyclopaedia. 
 
 terville. In 1807 a third mill was erected, and constituted the nucleus of the 
 village of Crompton. 
 
 Further progress was inevitable. As soon as the conditions of success were 
 existent, wise and strong hands were ready to work under those conditions, and 
 to convert possibility into reality. On the 9th of November, 1809, Christopher and 
 Charles Lippitt, together with several Providence gentlemen, organized the Lippitt 
 Manufacturing Company. The capital stock was $40,000, of which the Lippitts sub- 
 scribed half, and four citizens of Providence the remainder. Christopher Lippitt was 
 appointed its first agent, at the economical salary of $40 per month. At that time 
 the power-loom had not been introduced into America, and the yarns were distrib- 
 uted to the wives and daughters of farmers, to be woven on hand-looms into cloth. 
 Eleven years afterward, in 1820, the Lippitt Manufacturing Company introduced 
 power-looms, with new machinery and new methods, and also artisans to operate 
 them into their factory. Then, the genius of a man of letters began to enrich the 
 frugal soil of our cis-atlantic coast. When Arkwright's spinning-jenny and Cromp- 
 ton's drawing-frame were fairly at work, manufacturers inquired, " What is to become 
 of the yarn .? There will not be hands enough to weave it ?" The Rev. Edmund 
 Cartwright applied himself to the solution of the problem. He was a poor mechanic, 
 and had never seen a loom when, in 1784, he made his first attempt to construct 
 one. His first patent was taken out in 1785. His second patent, taken out in 
 1787, was for a machine that had automatic mechanical devices to operate all its 
 parts. RadcHffe, of Stockport, in 1802; Jacquard, of Lyons, in France; Roberts, of 
 Manchester, England; and Bigelow, Crompton, and Lyall, of this country, success- 
 ively labored on the power-loom, and brought its capacities of production to the 
 highest apparent limit. The Lippitt Manufacturing Company kept a vigilant eye on 
 all successive improvements, and judiciously availed themselves of all that could 
 contribute to lucrative fabrication. 
 
 Charles, son of Warren Lippitt, followed the sailor's vocation in early life, and 
 for several years had command of a vessel. Subsequently, for the space of twenty 
 years he conducted business as a cotton merchant in Providence, R. I., and in 
 Savannah, Ga. On the death of his father an interest in the Lippitt Manufacturing 
 Company fell to his share. In 1840 he was chosen treasurer of the corporation, 
 and retained that office until his death in 1850. Soon after that event, the interest 
 of his estate in the Lippitt Manufacturing Company was purchased by the heirs 
 of Christopher Lippitt, who still hold a controlling share in the association. 
 
 Governor Lippitt is the second son of Warren Lippitt. His scholastic educa- 
 tion was received at the academy in Kingston, R. I., and closed when he was 
 about fifteen years of age. He then accepted the position of clerk in the store 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 117 
 
 of Burr & Smith, Warren, R. I. His employers were interested in the whale-fishery, 
 and dealt largely in the products brought home by their ships. With them he 
 remained until November, 1835, when he returned to Providence to fill the position 
 of bookkeeper for Josiah Chapin & Co., the largest cotton merchants in the city 
 at that time. Three years afterward, in 1838, the firm closed its business; and 
 Mr. Lippitt entered into the commission business, in copartnership with Edward 
 Walcott, and with Amory Chapin as special partner. Since then, both in the com- 
 mission branch of trade and in the manufacture of cotton cloths, bleached goods, 
 etc., he has worthily established his reputation as one of the most intelligent, able, 
 and successful business men in the State. 
 
 Mercantile and manufacturing enterprise possesses marked aptitude for public 
 affairs, and always comes to the front in seasons of national crisis and need. This 
 historic truth received an addition to countless pre-existing illustrations in the appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Lippitt to the post of Commissioner of Enrollment for Rhode Island, 
 at the outbreak of the great Rebellion in 1861. His energy and prudence justified 
 the Governor's action in making the appointment, and quickly provided all the 
 quotas of patriot troops demanded from the State by the national administration. 
 
 Mr. Lippitt was one of the chief agents in the organization of the Providence 
 Board of Trade, and became its first vice-president and its second president. Mani- 
 fest fitness powerfully commended him to the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, and in 
 1875 and 1876 the highest local honor they could bestow was conferred upon him, 
 in his election to the gubernatorial chair of the State. Both terms of office were 
 characterized by the distinguished ability and administrative efficiency anticipated by 
 those who knew him best. 
 
ii8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 <2 
 
 ^AN ZANDT, CHARLES COLLINS, ex-Governor of Rhode Island. Born 
 
 in Newport, R. I., August loth, 1830. His father, Edward Van Zandt, 
 was a native of New York, and a civil engineer by profession. The 
 fe American Van Zandts are of purely Dutch (Holland) origin, and are 
 
 descended from ancestors who were men of note on the continent of Europe. 
 Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, in her excellent History of the City of New York, vol. 
 ii. pp. 33-4, states that the first of the name settled in New York about 1682. 
 His name was Johannes Van Zandt. He married Margareta Van der Voel in 
 1 68 1, and emigrated from the city of Anheim, Holland, to New York in 1682. 
 "His son Wynant was born in New York in 1683, ^"d died in 1763. Wynant's 
 son Wynant was bora in 1730, and died in 18 14. And Wynant, son of Wynant 
 (2d), was born in 1767, and died in 1831." Thus there were three Wynant Van 
 Zandts in Old New York, all men of wealth and worth in their generation. The 
 first Wynant Van Zandt of American birth was educated in Europe, and married 
 a Dutch lady. Their home in William Street, New York, was one of refinement 
 and luxury. Six sons were born to them, of whom Jacobus, the elder, occupied 
 the old homestead in 1775. Instinct with the genuine Dutch spirit, and a con- 
 stitutional hater of all tyranny, he was quickly associated with those who declared 
 for open resistance to the usurpations and oppressions of the British crown, and 
 served as a most useful member of the Provincial Convention of the colony of 
 New York in 1775. He afterward held the position of surgeon in the army 
 under Washington at Valley Forge and Trenton, and served his country honorably 
 throughout the Revolution. " His wife and beautiful daughter, Catharine (born in 
 1 760), fled to Morristown, New Jersey, during the occupation of New York by 
 the English. It was this Miss Van Zandt who was one of the leading belles at 
 the Inauguration Ball of our first President, and married in 1788 James Homer 
 Maxwell, son of the founder of the first banking establishment in New York. 
 In 1796, Louis Philippe, while in New York, was entertained by Wynant Van 
 Zandt (3d), and after his return to France wrote an autograph letter of thanks 
 for the hospitality shown him, sending at the same time to Van Zandt a beautiful 
 watch seal as a token of appreciation and remembrance." 
 
 The mother of Governor Van Zandt, nie Lydia Bradford Collins, was a daughter 
 of Lieutenant-Governor Collins, who held his executive position just half a cen- 
 tury before his son-in-law attained to the same honor. She was also a grand- 
 daughter of Governor Bradford, who was Lieutenant-Governor precisely one hundred 
 years before Governor Van Zandt acceded to that office. Lieutenant-Governor Col- 
 lins was a native of Bristol, Rhode Island. The Bradford family are imperishably 
 identified with Plymouth, Mass., and are descendants of William Bradford, author 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL' ENCYCLOPEDIA. 119 
 
 of the Chronicles of the Pilgrims, and one of the glorious heroes who led the 
 " poor people" of God, who had been so grievously afflicted by apparitors and 
 pursuivants and commissary courts in England, to New England, in order that 
 they might walk with God in a Christian life, as the rules and motives of such a 
 life were revealed to them from God's Word. The Pilgrim's dominant idea was 
 religious liberty ; that of the Puritan was right government in Church and State. 
 Both were correct, but the latter did not perceive that it was only through the enjoy- 
 ment of religious liberty that his own civil and political ideal could be realized. 
 
 Bradford accompanied the Separatists of Scrooby to Holland, and faithfully 
 chronicled their impressions and experiences. Like them he supported himself by 
 industrial pursuits as a fustian-maker and silk-worker. With them he emigrated to 
 America from Delft-Haven, lost his wife by drowning while the Mayflower was lying 
 at Cape Cod, suffered from the scurvy and other diseases which their long voyage 
 " and their inaccommodate condition had brought upon them," helped to negotiate 
 treaties of friendship with Massasoit and other Indians, was chosen chief magistrate 
 of the Plymouth Colony after the decease of Governor Carver, conducted its affairs 
 with masterly ability and grave discretion, administered justice with impartiality, and 
 approved himself to be one of the wisest and best of Christian men. In 1623 he 
 married Alice, the widow of Edward Southworth, continued his career of rare and 
 earnest usefulness, assisted to organize Christian churches whose charter was the 
 New Testament, and which deduced from that charter their own right to exist and 
 govern themselves by officers of their own choice and ordination, and when — having 
 " builded more wisely than he knew" — he came to the close of his checkered and 
 godly life, died in ripeness of years and honors, leaving behind him that good name 
 which is more precious than great riches, and which the Dutch ancestors of Charles 
 C. Van Zandt prized as dearly as did his English progenitors. 
 
 Having received his preliminary literary education in the select schools of 
 Newport, and also under the tuition of his grandfather Collins, young Van Zandt 
 next entered an academy at Shrewsbury, and finally completed preparation 
 for college under the supervision of the Rev. Charles T. Brooks, at Newport. His 
 knowledge of languages was first acquired under the tutelage of a Jesuit priest, 
 named Leonard. In 1847 he matriculated at Amherst College, spent one year in 
 that institution, and thence repaired to Trinity College, from which he graduated in 
 1 85 1. His degree of A.M. was subsequently conferred by Brown University. 
 
 The catholicity of his ancestral antecedents, together with that of his educational 
 experience, is singularly in harmony with that of the legal profession, to which he 
 resolved to devote his principal energies. His legal studies began in the office of 
 the celebrated Thomas C. Perkins at Hertford, Conn,, and were continued in that 
 
I20 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 of Christopher G. Perry — son of Commodore Perry — at Newport. Admitted to the 
 bar of the latter city in 1853, he has ever since prosecuted the duties of his profession 
 in the same locjUty. For two years he officiated as corporation attorney for Newport. 
 In 1854-5 he was clerk of the House of Assembly, and afterward entered it as a duly 
 elected member. In 1857 he was chosen Speaker of the House, and took an active 
 part in the Ives and Hazard controversy. In 1858 he was again returned as a mem- 
 ber of the House, and has since been chosen to the same dignity at a number of con- 
 secutive elections. The appreciation of his character and abilities by his fellow legisla- 
 tors was invariably made manifest by his elevation to the Speakership of the House. 
 In 1862 he was promoted to the State Senate, served as chairman of the Judiciary 
 Committee, and became a prime mover in the enactment of a law abolishing that 
 hoary and absurd iniquity, imprisonment for debt, within the limits of his State. 
 In 1873-4 he was chosen to the office of Lieutenant-Governor, and occupied the 
 chair as President pro-tem of the Senate. In 1877 he received the compliment 
 and trust of the highest local honor within the power of Rhode Islanders to bestow, 
 in the form of election to the chief magistracy of the commonwealth ; and during 
 his term of office exercised the functions of Governor with marked distinction and 
 success. By virtue of his office he also served as the presiding officer of the 
 Senate. 
 
 In politics he was originally associated with the Old Line Whigs. After the 
 dissolution of that party, he identified himself with the Republicans, and has always 
 been active and efficient in the prosecution of its policy, both in State and 
 nation. On two successive occasions he has acted as chairman of the Rhode 
 Island delegation in the Republican National Conventions — first in that which nomi- 
 nated General U. S. Grant for his second Presidential term, and second in that 
 which selected Governor R. B. Hayes as the standard-bearer of Republicanism. 
 During Presidential campaigns, his eloquent and convincing speech has been heard 
 in various States, and with such excellent effect that President Hayes offered him 
 the position of minister to the court of St. Petersburg. The United States, 
 however, had stronger claims than the Russian mission, and he declined the proffer, 
 in order that he might continue his large practice in the United States courts in 
 Rhode Island and sister States. 
 
 Governor Van Zandt was married in 1863 to Arazeli, daughter of Albert G, 
 Greene. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 121 
 
 ^k^ITTLEFIELD, ALFRED HENRY, of Lincoln, Governor of Rhode Island. 
 
 ^ Born at the Jackson Factory in the town of Scituate, R. I., April 2d, 1829. 
 His father, John Littlefield, was born in South Kingston, R. L, July 15th, 
 
 \ 1798, and died June 23d, 1847. The family name is evidently English, and 
 those who first bore it in this country were settlers on Block Island, Mass. His 
 mother, Deborah (Himes) Littlefield, was born in North Kingston, R. I., March 
 30th, 1798, married March nth, 1816, and still lives (March 30th, 1880), at Paw- 
 tucket. The occupation of John Littlefield was that of a farmer, in North and 
 South Kingston, until his removal to Scituate, a short time before Alfred H. — 
 one of eleven children — was born. 
 
 When two years of age the latter removed with his family from Scituate to the 
 village of Natick, in Warwick, R. I. There he attended the village school until he 
 attained the age of eight years, when he began the labor of life in the cotton mills 
 of the Messrs. Sprague, where he earned the very modest sum of one dollar per 
 week. Passing through different departments of the factory, he continued to work 
 therein for about seven years, until the fall of 1844, when he resumed attendance 
 at school. 
 
 The second period of scholastic culture was decidedly brief, and terminated in 
 May of the following year, when — through the influence of his brother George, who 
 had been clerk to J. M. Davis of Central Falls for some time — he removed to 
 that village, and entered the same employment, for the compensation of two dollars 
 and twenty-five cents per week. In addition to his trade as a retail dealer in dry 
 goods, boots, and shoes, Mr. Davis put up small quantities of skein and spool cotton 
 for the general market. So valuable did the services of the new clerk prove, that 
 his wages were raised to three dollars per week at the end of three months. Soon 
 afterward a second advance to four dollars per week was effected. The youth now 
 felt himself to be on the high road to assured and permanent prosperity. A tem- 
 porary check in his progress was experienced when, in January, 1847, his employer 
 failed in business. The check was only temporary, for his brother George and Elias 
 Nickerson bought the stock, and continued the business under the firm title of 
 Littlefield & Nickerson until the spring of 1849, when the latter partner sold out 
 his interest to the former, who thenceforward conducted the business in his own 
 name until May, 1851. 
 
 At the latter date the firm of Littlefield Brothers was organized by the inclusion 
 of Alfred H., who had up to that epoch served Littlefield & Nickerson, and G. L. 
 Littlefield in the capacity of clerk. Now, the dry goods, boot and shoe branch of 
 the concern at Central Falls was disposed of, and the thread department continued 
 under the management of Alfred H, Littlefield, at Central Falls and Pawtucket. At 
 
122 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 the same time, in connection with another brother, D. G. Littlefield, the business 
 of a country store was carried on at Haydenville, Mass. — A. H. Littlefield acting as 
 buyer. In January, 1853, the Haydenville concern was sold out to the resident 
 partner. The brothers George L. and Alfred H. then began the dry goods business 
 on April ist, in the block of J. B. Read, Main Street, Pawtucket. Prompt to 
 enter upon advantageous openings, George L. purchased, about this time, an interest 
 in the firm of David Ryder & Co., thread and yarn manufacturers, of Pawtucket — 
 leaving Alfred H. to attend dry goods affairs. This he did until April, 1854, when 
 the store was sold to A. O. Mead & Co. From that time until November 27th 
 of the said year, A. H. Littlefield was occupied in the settlement of his retail 
 accounts. That completed, he purchased of David Ryder a quarter interest in the 
 business of his firm, and thus became its third member. On the 31st of March, 
 1858, he bought the interest of Mr. Ryder, who retired from the firm, which thence- 
 forward transacted its business under the title of Littlefield Brothers, in Pawtucket — 
 a title it still retains (April loth, 1880). Indeed, the firm of Littlefield Brothers, 
 notwithstanding the temporary association with Mr. Ryder, has remained intact from 
 its organization in 1851 to the present. 
 
 On March 20th, 1857, Mr. A. H. Littlefield purchased a small house with a 
 large lot on Broad Street, Central Falls, from H. B. Bowen. In the year ensuing 
 the old house was taken away, and the handsome and commodious edifice in which 
 he now resides was erected. 
 
 Governor Littlefield's public political career commenced in June, 1873. The 
 village of Central Falls, with which he has been so prominently identified, formed 
 part of the old town of Smithfield until April, 1871, when it was divided into three 
 district townships. Central Falls became part of the new town of Lincoln. At the 
 town caucus in May, 1873, Mr. A. H. Littlefield was nominated for membership in 
 the town council, but declined the proffered honor. Notwithstanding his declination, 
 he was urged to allow his name to be used, was again nominated, and was elected 
 at the town meeting in June. In 1874, '5, '6, and '7 he was returned to the same 
 position, and served with such entire satisfaction to his constituents that they unani- 
 mously renominated him in 1878. But pressing duties in other relations helped to 
 induce a firm refusal to accept the honor a sixth time. He had been elected to 
 membership in the Rhode Island House of Representatives in April, 1876, and 
 re-elected in 1877. In both years he acted as chairman of the Committee on 
 Accounts. 
 
 PubUc trusts and honors seek demonstrably fit non-professional politicians; and 
 membership in the State Senate, from his own town sought Mr. Littlefield's ac- 
 ceptance in April, 1878, and again in 1879, when he was triumphantly elected by 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 123 
 
 his supporters. In the Senate he served on the Committees on Corporations and 
 Finance. But another step to the pinnacle of local eminence remained. On the 
 1 8th of March, 1880, he received the Republican nomination for the chief magis- 
 tracy of his grand old State ; and on the 7th of April, the day of election, re- 
 ceived 10098 votes for that office. The Democratic candidate received 7239, and 
 the Prohibitionist, supported by disaffected Republicans, 5062 votes for the gov- 
 ernorship. As the State Constitution requires that a clear majority of votes over 
 all competitors must be cast for the successful candidate, there was manifestly no 
 election, either of Governor or Lieutenant-Governor, by the people in this particular 
 instance. The General Assembly, however, as by law instructed, obeyed the popular 
 will by seating Mr. Littlefield in the gubernatorial chair on the last Tuesday in 
 May. 
 
 In national politics. Governor Littlefield was affiliated with the Whig party 
 until its dissolution. He then united with the Republicans, and has since consis- 
 tently sustained the principles and policy peculiar to their organization. In 1876 
 he was president of the Hayes and Wheeler Club of Central Falls. To that 
 Christianity which is at once the ground and bulwark of free institutions he is 
 intelligently and strongly attached. Although not a member of the First Baptist 
 Church in Pawtucket, with which his wife is connected, he is a regular and interested 
 attendant upon its instructions and worship. In strict consistency with political bias 
 and business principles. Governor Littlefield has exhibited keen practical interest in 
 the military organizations of Rhode Island. When the Pawtucket Light Guard 
 was formed, in September, 1857, he united with it, and held the post of. commis- 
 sioned officer until 1863, when he was appointed brigade quartermaster on the staff of 
 Brigadier-General Olney Arnold. At that period all the citizens of Rhode Island, 
 who were liable to military duty, were formed into companies and brigades. Early 
 in 1864 General Arnold was elected major-general of the State by the General Assem- 
 bly, and Mr. Littlefield was appointed division inspector of the Rhode Island militia, 
 with the rank of colonel. That office he held for five consecutive years. During 
 the great Rebellion he performed efficient service in the struggle for the preserva- 
 tion of the Union at home. Such aid was as needful to ultimate success as 
 consummate generalship and heroic bravery at the front ; for without sympathy and 
 support at home the heart of the " defenders" must have waxed spiritless and faint. 
 
 Governor Littlefield is one of the corporators of the Pawtucket Hair-Cloth 
 Company, and has been a director since its formation. He is also a member of 
 the directory of the Cumberland Mills Company, of the Stafford Manufacturing 
 Company at Central Falls, and of the First National Bank in Pawtucket. 
 
 On the 9th of February, 1853, he was united in marriage with Rebecca Jane, 
 
124 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 daughter of Eberi and Jane Northrop of Central Falls. Four children have been 
 the issue of the union, viz., Eben N., born February 7th, 1854; Minnie Jane, born 
 January 14th, 1857, died August 24th, 1861 ; George Howard, born March 24th, 
 1859, di-ed August 8th, 1861 ; Alfred H., Jr., born October i6th, 1863. 
 
 Governor Littlefield is a Yankee of the best type^and better type of genuine 
 manhood there is none. As a boy he was laudably ambitious, and determined to 
 know something, and to be something. The spirit of Benjamin Franklin, the great 
 philosopher and diplomatist, was alive and vigorous within him. Not less than EHhu 
 Burritt, Simpson, Sherman, Herschel, and the host of " self-made men" whom Smiles 
 has made familiar by his works, he has illustrated the possibihties of one to whom 
 ordinary educational culture in early life is denied. Leisure moments have been dili- 
 gently utilized in reading and study, with such success that, as an editor truly 
 remarked, " no one would suspect that he had not received the best literary training 
 in his youth." In the wider and more practical school of active life, in the walks 
 of business, and in the halls of legislation, " no man has gained a better reputation 
 for general intelligence, knowledge of public affairs, sound judgment, sagacity, and 
 practical ability in legislation, than Alfred H. Littlefield." 
 
 ^DWARDS, PIERREPONT, Judge of the United States District Court of 
 
 ^jfj Connecticut. Born at Northampton, Mass., April 8th, 1750; died at Bridge- 
 
 !^S port, Conn., April 5th, 1826. He was the third son, and the youngest of 
 
 ^ eleven children of the celebrated metaphysician and theologian, Jonathan 
 
 Edwards ; and, according to the family record kept by the latter, was born on the 
 
 evening of the Sabbath, and was baptized the Sabbath following. 
 
 The Edwards family is of Welsh origin. Richard Edwards, the earliest known 
 ancestor of Judge Edwards, was reputed to have been a clergyman in London in the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth, and to have emigrated thither from Wales. He graduated 
 at Christ College, in Cambridge University, in 1607, and died in London of the plague 
 in 1625. His widow married James Cole, and emigrated to America in 1640, bringing 
 her only child, by her first husband, with her. The name of that child was William 
 Edwards. Mother, son and stepfather settled at Hartford, Conn. There William 
 Edwards married. His son, Richard Edwards, born in Hartford, May, 1647, was a 
 
(2yi>t>iy^ ^:=^C.^^ /^^^^C^^-<X^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA . .125 
 
 merchant of wealth and respectability, and was remarkable for his conscientious 
 integrity, and unusual devotedness to the interests of religion and morality. Rev. 
 Timothy Edwards, son of Richard, and father of President Edwards, was born at 
 Hartford, May 14th, 1669; graduated from Harvard College, July 4th, 1691, and was 
 ordained to the ministry of the Gospel at Windsor, Conn., in May, 1694. He 
 married, in November of the same year, Esther, second child of the Rev. Solomon 
 Stoddard, and a woman of rare mental and moral excellence, who shared the 
 enlightened and advanced opinions of her husband. Mr. Edwards prepared not his 
 son only, but each of his daughters also, for college. ?Ie was a diligent and faithful 
 pastor, and the instrument of many beneficent revivals of religion. His fifth child 
 was the distinguished philosopher, Jonathan Edwards, who, though born in an obscure 
 colony, and nurtured in the midst of a wilderness, has left the impress of his own 
 mind and heart upon those of succeeding generations ; and who " unfolded 2^ system 
 of the Divine moral government so new, so clear, so full, that while at its first 
 disclosure it needed no aid from its friends, and feared no opposition from its 
 enemies, it has at length constrained a reluctant world to bow in homage to its 
 truth." Life of President Edwards, p. 9. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards was born at East Windsor, Conn., October 5th, 1703. On 
 both sides of the house he was allied to the ecclesiastical aristocracy of New 
 England. His parents embodied the highest type of Christian character. His home 
 education was of the wisest and happiest. The family government, under which he 
 rose to maturity, was at once strict and affectionate, and saved him from those " evil 
 communications" which too often blast the brightest promise of youth. He was 
 naturally religious — '' had a genius for religion." At the age of seven or eight 
 years he was " concerned about things of religion" and his " soul's salvation, and was 
 abundant in religious duties." He writes : " I used to pray five times a day in 
 secret, and to spend much time in religious conversation with other boys, and used 
 to meet with them to pray together. I experienced I know not what kind of 
 delight in religion." Afterward, in reflecting on his early fervid emotions, he did 
 not regard them as signs of genuine piety. They reveal, however, those elements 
 of nature out of which genuine piety must spring. 
 
 Dutiful, docile, and exemplary from infancy, he was as exceptional in intellectual 
 as in moral particulars. Trained by his father and his four eldest sisters, who were 
 proficients in learning, he entered Yale College in 1 716, just before he was thirteen 
 years of age— one of the youngest, if not the youngest student that ever enrolled 
 his name on its books. During the following year his favorite study was Locke on 
 the Htiman Understanding. Prior to this he had written a paper which exhibited 
 deep interest in the question of materialism. He also composed some remarkable 
 
126 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 papers on questions in natural philosophy. Portents of future greatness multiplied. 
 At college he distinguished himself as an acute thinker and an impassioned writer. 
 In 1720 he took the degree of B.A., and delivered the "salutatory, which was also 
 the valedictory oration." 
 
 About the epoch of his graduation from college, after varied and thrilling 
 experiences, he began to entertain an abiding confidence that he had been regenerated 
 by the Holy Spirit, and recorded his ideas and emotions in poetic and glowing 
 language. He felt, at times, as if " alone in the mountains or some sohtary wil- 
 derness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with Christ, and rapt and swallowed 
 up in God." Acuteness of intellect, activity of imagination, quickness of sensibility, 
 and depth of piety were so marked that his friends looked upon him as one called 
 of God to the ministry of the word. For two years after his graduation, he 
 pursued theological studies at Yale, as a resident scholar, and was approbated as 
 a preacher in 1722, — several months before he had reached his nineteenth year. 
 From August, 1722, to April, 1723, he preached to a Presbyterian Church in New 
 York City, but declined the call to the pastorate. While in New York he wrote 
 the first thirty-four of his " Resolutions" for the government of his life. From 
 June, 1724, to September, 1726, he was a tutor in Yale College; and on February 
 15th, 1727, was ordained as pastor of the church in Northampton — a colleague of 
 his renowned grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. Eminence as a preacher was reached 
 at a bound. Fie dwelt mainly on the Divine law, the Divine sovereignty, man's 
 entire sinfulness by nature, justification by faith, and eternal punishment. Speech 
 was often extemporaneous, gesture was slight and seldom, voice was not command- 
 ing, but his sermons were powerful from deep thought and strong feeling. Few 
 preachers have ever produced such profound and lasting impressions. The people 
 realized the truth of his words, and were completely carried away by his eloquence. 
 
 In February, 1729, on the death of Mr. Stoddard, the entire charge of the 
 congregation devolved on Mr. Edwards. Religious awakenings occurred in his parish 
 in the years 1734, 1735, and 1740. At the latter period he became the bosom 
 friend of George Whitefield. While all his energies were taxed by multifarious 
 labors, he studied the phenomena of the revivals with all the critical acumen of 
 the philosopher, and then proceeded to write some of his ablest disquisitions. 
 Space will not permit the mention of all. A Divine and Supernatural Light 
 Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, (1734: a sermon highly valued for its 
 spiritual philosopy) ; A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in 
 the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton, etc., Sinners in the Hands 
 of an Angry God (1741: a terrific discourse); A Treatise Concerning Religious 
 Affections (1745 — one of his most excellent and able works) — are among the most 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 127 
 
 ^^aluable. In 1749 he wrote The Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd, a 
 volume which exercised great influence on Henry Martyn, and which lias profoundly 
 affected the missionary spirit of the Anglo-Saxon family in both hemispheres. 
 Christ the Example of Gospel Ministers, followed next ; then a treatise of histori- 
 cal as well as theological importance, entitled, Qualifications for full Communion 
 in the Visible Church. In 1750 was published his Farewell Sermon to the People 
 of Northampton ; considered by many " the best farewell sermon ever written." 
 
 His Farewell Sermon was occasioned by dismissal from his Northampton pas- 
 torate on the 22d of June, 1750. Jonathan Edwards had been faithful in all 
 things, and had offended some influential families in his congregation, as early as 
 1744, by his stringent measures in regard to alleged prevalent immoralities. He was 
 a resolute and uncompromising reprover of sin, and inevitably provoked opposition 
 to himself. His position on the vexed question of qualification for communion 
 afforded a pretext to his opponents for dismissing him. They, in common with his 
 distinguished grandfather, Mr. Stoddard, " favored the principle that unconverted 
 persons who are not immoral have a right to partake of the Lord's Supper." He 
 denied it, and after long and earnest controversy was ejected from the office he 
 had adorned for more than twenty-three years. The discussion did not end there, 
 but continued after his death until it closed by the acceptance of his principles 
 by all the evangelical churches of the land. 
 
 Edwards possessed the genuine martyr spirit, and the martyr faith, and both 
 were called into requisition. He was in his forty-seventh year, had a large and 
 expensive family, but no property, and was obliged to receive aid from friends in 
 America and Great Britain. In August, 1751, he was installed pastor of the Con- 
 gregational Church at Stockbridge, Mass., and missionary to the Housatonic tribe 
 of Indians at that place. Fever and ague attacked him, and added to the many trials 
 under which he composed a characteristic sermon in 1752, entitled True Grace Dis- 
 tinguished from the Experience of Devils. In 1 754 appeared the most famous and 
 controverted of all his works — the immortal Essay on the Freedom of the Will. 
 Expositors and critics differ as to his meaning, but all concede his wonderful ability 
 and logical skill. 
 
 While in the solitudes of Stockbridge he finished another of his great theological 
 works, which was not published until after his death. It is The great Christian 
 Doctrine of Original Sin Defended, etc., the distinctive peculiarity of which is the doc- 
 trine that there was a constituted oneness or identity of Adam and his posterity, 
 according to which Adam and his posterity are ''looked upon as one, and dealt with 
 accordingly." His Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the Worlds 
 and also his Dissertation Concerning the Nature of True Virtue, were also written 
 
128 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 during his retirement at Stockbridge, but were not published until 1788 — thirty years 
 after his death. Portions of his works were given to the public in 1764, 1777, 1788, 
 1789, 1793, and 1796. His published works were collected and printed in eight 
 volumes, edited by Dr. Samuel Austin, at Worcester, Mass., in 1809. A larger edi- 
 tion, including new material — especially his Notes on the Bible — was published at 
 New York in 1829, under the editorship of Dr. S. Edwards Dwight. Two additional 
 volumes, of which one has not been reprinted in America, have since been given to 
 the world. 
 
 Of all the scholars and divines born on American soil, not one has exerted so 
 powerful, wide, and durable an influence on metaphysical speculation and theological 
 study as Jonathan Edwards. Whitefield and Brainerd were modified by his plastic 
 hand ; Bellamy and Hopkins were two of his theological pupils. British leaders of 
 thought have uniformly rated his powers and acquirements higher than his own 
 countrymen have done. Philosophers like Dugald Stewart, Sir James Mackintosh, and 
 Isaac Taylor have delighted to do him honor; and preachers like Robert Hall and 
 Thomas Chalmers have prized the privilege of sitting at his feet. Powers like his 
 could not remain in permanent obscurity. His learning, culture, and manifold excel- 
 lency were known to gentlemen entrusted with the interests of the College at Prince- 
 ton, New Jersey, and by them he was elected to the presidency on the 26th of Sep- 
 tember, 1757. At first, for reasons satisfactoiy to himself, and which he detailed with 
 great simplicity and fulness in his response to the trustees, he declined the office. 
 His objections were overruled, and on January 4th, 1758, he was dismissed from his 
 Stockbridge pastorate, after a laborious incumbency of six years and a half On the 
 1 6th of the following month, February, he was inaugurated; was inoculated for the 
 small-pox on the 23d, and died of the secondary fever that supervened, on the 22d 
 of March, 1758, aged 54 years, 5 months, and 17 days. He had resided at Prince- 
 ton about nine weeks, and had been in official harness just five weeks, when called 
 to leave the post he was so splendidly fitted to adorn, and in which his marvellous 
 endowments of mind and heart were so likely to affisct the State and country for 
 their highest good. But his influence, like his fame, is none the less potent and im- 
 perishable on the Church and on the nation because of his premature and mysterious 
 removal. Life's great end had been answered in him, and by precept and example 
 he had taught all who should come after him how to make life solidly and satisfac- 
 torily successful, in the best sense of the word. 
 
 The wife of President Jonathan Edwards, and the mother of Judge Pierrepont 
 Edwards, Sarah Pierrepont, was a lady of uncommon beauty and accomplishments. Her 
 paternal grandfather was the grandson of William Pierrepont, the younger brother of 
 the. first Earl, of Kingston, John Pierrepont, who came from England in 1640 and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 129 
 
 settled in Roxbury, Mass. Her father, the Rev. James Pierrepont, the eldest and only 
 son of John who left issue, was an eminent, pious, and useful minister at New Haven. 
 Mr. Pierrepont was one of the principal founders, and one of the trustees of Yale 
 College, and aided the infant seminary for some time by reading lectures to the 
 students as Professor of Moral Philosophy. Sarah Pierrepont was born on the 9th 
 of January, 1710, and at the date of her marriage, July 28th, 1727, was, in the 
 eighteenth year of her age. Her portrait, " while it presents a form and features not 
 often rivaled, exhibits also that peculiar loveliness of expression which is the com- 
 bined result of intelligence, cheerfulness, and benevolence." The description that 
 President Edwards wrote of her in her girlhood was pronounced by Di'. Chalmers to 
 be one of the most beautiful compositions in the language. It was inscribed on a 
 blank leaf in 1723, and reads as follows: "They say there is a young lady in 
 [New HavenJ who is beloved of that Great Being who made and rules the world, 
 and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other 
 invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she 
 hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on Him — that she expects after a while 
 to be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up 
 into heaven ; being assured that He loves her too well to let her remain at a dis- 
 tance from Him always. There she is to dwell with Him, and to be ravished with 
 His love and delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her, 
 with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it, and cares not for it, and is unmind- 
 ful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular 
 purity in hf r affections ; is most just and conscientious in her conduct ; and you could 
 not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the 
 world, lest she should offend this Great Being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, 
 calmness and universal benevolence of mind, especially after this Great God has mani- 
 fested Himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, sing- 
 ing sweetly ; and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure ; and no one knows 
 for what. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to 
 have some one invisible always conversing with her." 
 
 The matrimonial union between herself and husband grew out of high personal 
 esteem and mutual affection, which continually ripened and mellowed for the time of 
 harvest. The station she was called to fill was one of great delicacy and responsi- 
 bility ; but from first to last she discharged the duties pertaining to it in such 
 manner as to secure the high and increasing approbation of all who knew her. Her 
 sons rose to eminence in legal and ecclesiastical pursuits. Timothy, the eldest, was 
 born at Northampton, Mass., July 1 7th, 1 738. Graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, 
 N. J., Married Rhoda Ogden, of Elizabethtown, N. J., September, 1760, and lived 
 9 
 
I30 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P^ D I A . 
 
 there until 1771, when he removed to Stockbridge, Mass. He was learned in the 
 law, and ascended the judicial bench. He was a prominent patriot, and devoted 
 himself almost exclusively, from 1775 to 1873, to the service of his country as a 
 member of the Massachusetts State Legislature, as a commissioner — associated with 
 General Schuyler and Silas Deane — to the Indians on our Western border, to, if 
 possible, keep them at peace ; also as commissary for supplying the army with 
 provisions. 
 
 In 1777 he was elected by the Legislature of Massachusetts a member of the 
 Continental Congress. His colleagues were John Adams and John Hancock. The 
 danger from General Burgoyne's army overrunning the country, and his duties as 
 commissary, prevented his taking his seat. 
 
 His pecuniary sacrifices for the cause of liberty absorbed most of his property. 
 When the army was about to march to meet Burgoyne's army. General Schuyler 
 wrote to him that he could not move without he had some money. He sent General 
 Schuyler one thousand pounds, and received Continental money for it, which was 
 never redeemed. He also made large purchases of provisions for the army, and was 
 paid in paper money, which his descendants now hold. 
 
 After the close of the war General Washington wrote an autograph letter of 
 three pages, recalling his services and his devotion without pay, thanking him for 
 his efficient aid. This letter is now in the possession of his family. 
 
 Jonathan, the second son, acquired a fame which almost rivalled that of his father. 
 He was President of Union College at the time of his death. 
 
 Pierrepont Edwards, the youngest son, born in 1 750, from the fact that his father 
 was a missionary to the Housatonics at Stockbridge, necessarily spent much of his 
 early boyhood among that people, and acquired their language so perfectly that he 
 was wont to say that he "thought in Indian." His later boyhood was spent in 
 New Jersey and North Carolina. After the usual preparation he matriculated at 
 Princeton College, and graduated therefrom in 1768. In 1769 he married Frances 
 Ogden, the cousin of Governor Aaron Ogden, of New Jersey. Selecting the profession 
 of law, he next studied its theory and practice, was admitted to the bar, and began 
 profesional life at New Haven in 1771. Thoroughly sympathizing with the principles 
 and aspirations of the patriots, he took an early and efficient part in the councils of 
 Connecticut in favor of. national independence. On the field he also fought valiantly 
 as a member of the Revolutionary army, and was a combatant in two hard-fought 
 battles, including that of Danbury. In the latter he was reported as killed, because 
 he remained on the battle-field for the rescue of a friend. 
 
 In political affairs, Mr. Edwards was active, earnest, and influential. One of the 
 most successful lawyers of his time, he was frequently elected to the Legislature of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 131 
 
 Connecticut, and held the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives. Of 
 Benedict Arnold's estate he was appointed administrator at the time of the traitor's 
 defection from the Revolutionary cause. In 1795, he, with a large number of gentle- 
 men, purchased the lands of the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio for the sum of 
 $1,200,000. His subscription to the purchase-price was the sum of $60,000. The 
 " Reserve" included a tract of about three and a half million acres, lying within the 
 ancient charter limits of Connecticut, which the State retained in 1786, after ceding 
 all other right and title in the public lands to the United States. In May, 1795, the 
 General Assembly appointed a committee of eight persons, of whom John Treadwell 
 was chairman, to make sale of this reservation, and to " appropriate the avails to a 
 permanent fund, the. interest of which should be annually distributed among the 
 several school societies of the State, according to the list of polls and ratable estate 
 in each."* By this investment Mr. Edwards became a contributor to the wealthy and 
 admirably managed public school fund of Connecticut, and indirectly an assistant in 
 the creation of a system of public schools which, in the opinion of many competent 
 judges, is inferior to that of no other State or country. 
 
 In 1787-88 he was elected delegate from Connecticut to the Continental 
 Congress. For the adoption of the Constitution of the United States he was an 
 able and ardent advocate in the convention held to ratify it, at Hartford, in January, 
 1 788. In the political contests between the Federalists and Republicans — afterward 
 called Democrats — he espoused the views of the latter, and stood at their head, in 
 Connecticut, in 1804. In 1806 he was appointed Judge of the United States District 
 Court of Connecticut — a position he held for over twenty-two years, until the day 
 of his death. Between himself and Aaron Burr, whose maternal uncle he was, a 
 a striking resemblance in accomplishments, address, and other characteristics is said 
 to have existed. As judge of the District Court he attempted " to revive the old 
 Federal doctrine of a common-law jurisdiction in the United States courts." Under 
 his instructions a grand jury found bills of indictment against sundry obnoxious 
 persons, and among them against " the publisher of the Connecticut Courant, for 
 having charged Jefferson with sending the two millions to Paris as a bribe to France. 
 Five years after (181 1), this latter case was finally adjudicated in the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, upon which occasion the important decision was first 
 formally made (though the Democratic party had always held to the doctrine), that 
 the courts of the United States have no criminal jurisdiction not expressly conferred 
 upon them by statute." HildretKs History of the United States, Second Series, 
 vol. ii. p. 592. 
 
 * " Hollister's History of Connecticut," vol. ii. p. 571 et scq. 
 
133 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Judge Edwards has earned just praise by his leadership of the Toleration party, 
 which came into power in Connecticut in the year 1817. Up to that time the 
 commonwealth had lived and prospered, for a hundred and fifty years, under the 
 provisions of the old royal charter ; which, while it had done " hard and honest 
 service," was no longer suited to the changed social and political conditions of the 
 State. Edwards had the sagacity to perceive this distinctly, and led, if he did not 
 found, the party which formed the new Constitution. At the May session of the 
 General Assembly in 181 8, it was resolved "that it be and is hereby recommended 
 to the people of this State" to elect, on the ensuing 4th of July, " as many delegates 
 as said towns now choose representatives to the General Assembly, who shall meet 
 in convention at the State House in Hartford, on the the fourth Wednesday of 
 August next ; and when so convened, shall, if it be by them deemed expedient, 
 proceed to the formation of a constitution of civil government for the people of 
 this State." A copy of the constitution, thus formed, was ordered to " be transmitted 
 to each town-clerk in the State, who was directed to lay it before the people of the 
 town to which he belonged, in legal town meeting, for their approbation and 
 ratification. The constitution, when thus ratified by a majority of the qualified voters 
 of the State, it was ordered, should " be and remain the supreme law of this State." 
 Hollisters History of ConnectictU, vol. ii. p. 516. A fierce conflict of opinions at 
 once arose. Judge Edwards, by his conspicuous ability and perseverance, drew down 
 upon himself the animosity and denunciations of the Calvinists. Bitter strifes, abusive 
 pamphlets, scornful speeches, appeals from the pulpits of all persuasions, prosecutions 
 for libel, interruptions of social intercourse in families and neighborhoods, disturbed 
 the peace and darkened the moral atmosphere of the " land of steady habits.'' 
 Gradually the clouds cleared away, and the social relations of the people regained 
 their old friendliness ; and while all could speak in terms of profound respect ot 
 the charter which had been so serviceable in the past, they also learned to speak, 
 "some loudly, and others in a more subdued tone, in praise of the constitution which 
 gave equal rights, ecclesiastical as well as civil, to all the inhabitants of the State." 
 
 While the name of Pierrepont Edwards is as imperishably indentified with the civil 
 policy of Connecticut as the name of Jonathan Edwards is with its ecclesiastical 
 creeds and customs, the former will also be remembered for the further reason that he 
 was the first Grand Master among the Free and Accepted Masons of Connecticut ; 
 and that he drew up the constitution of the original Lodge in that State. 
 
 Judge Edwards died April 5th, 1822, at the age of seventy-two years. Of his 
 children there survived him his sons — 
 
 John Stark Edwards, born August 2d, 1771. He graduated at Princeton. Was 
 admitted to the bar in 1799. Emigrated to Ohio the same year, to take charo-e 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 133 
 
 « 
 
 of his father's large interests in that State. Married Ann Louisa Morris, daughter 
 of General Lewis Morris, of Vermont, the nephew of the signer, Lewis Morris 
 Was ■ elected to Congress to represent the Sixth Congressional District of Ohio, in 
 1 81 2. Died January 29th, 18 13, before taking his seat in the House of Representa- 
 tives. 
 
 Henry Waggaman Edwards. Born 1779. Graduated at Princeton 1797. Elected 
 member of Congress for the State of Connecticut from 1819 to 1823. United States 
 Senator, 1823-27. State Senator, 1828-29-30. Governor, 1833-35-38. Died July 22d, 
 1847. 
 
 Ogden Edwards. Born 1781. Educated at Princeton College and Litchfield 
 Law School. Admitted to the bar of New York. Surrogate and Counsel for the 
 Corporation of the city of New York. Member of the New York Legislature and 
 Constitutional Convention of 182 1. Circuit Judge of the First Circuit of the State 
 of New York, from 1822 to 1861. Candidate of the American or Know-Nothing 
 party, in 1862, for Governor of the State of New York. Died April ist, 1862. He 
 married Harriet, the daughter of Daniel Penfield — whose wife was the daughter of 
 General Fellowes, of Massachusetts — and who purchased and settled the town of 
 Penfield, Monroe County, State of New York, where he died. 
 
 Alfred Pierrepont Edwards. Born 1774. Died 1863. He was a merchant in the 
 city of New York, engaged in the trade with China. 
 
 Daughters. — Susan. Born December 24th, 1777. Married Samuel William John- 
 son, of Stratford, Conn. Son and grandson of the Doctors Samuel Johnson. Died 
 February 19th, 1856. 
 
 Henrietta Frances. Born September 25th, 1784. Married Eli Whitney, the 
 inventor of the cotton gin, 18 17. Died 1870. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 « 
 
 PERRY, N. D., of New Haven, was born in the town of Woodbridge, New 
 Haven County, Conn., July loth, 1827, and descended from Richard -Sperry of 
 the New Haven Colony, whose grant of land was a little west of the city of 
 New Haven, near the Judges' Cave on West Rock, and who was made 
 famous in colonial history for supplying food and caring for the regicides, Goffe, 
 Whalley, and Dixwell, the judges who condemned Charles I., and after the Resto- 
 ration escaped to this country and were cared for by their friends in Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was the third son of Enoch and Atlanta Sperry, the 
 son of a New England manufacturer and farmer. Living v/here the products of the 
 soil are won only by untiring and persevering labor, where the inhabitants were few 
 and widely separated, and surrounded by some of the wildest and most impressive 
 scenery of this section of the State, he developed in youth that sturdy self-reliance, 
 unwearying industry, reverence for sacred things, and knowledge of human nature 
 which have been in so many New England bred men the foundation of honorable 
 and successful lives. Like many other young men cf his State, while approaching 
 manhood he varied the duties of the year by teaching in the district schools in the 
 winter, with marked success. His education was that which these schools give, 
 supplemented by the broader education which vigorous and aspiring minds will always 
 wrest from the world at large and every phase of life with which they come in 
 contact — the admirable English foundation which is the birthright of every New 
 England child, with the effective superstructure which his training so well fits him to 
 secure. In early manhood Mr. Sperry came to New Haven and settled there for 
 life, beginning a very successful career as a builder, in partnership with Willis M. 
 Smith, under the firm name of Smith & Sperry. Many of the city's finest build- 
 ings, public and private, are the work of this firm. Mr. Sperry at once identified 
 himself with the best intei-ests of his new home, and began to gain that prominence 
 in political life by which he is best known to the nation at large. He served as 
 a selectman of the town, and also as a member of each branch of the citv's Court 
 of Common Council. He was peculiarly alive to the advantages of city improve- 
 ments. He organized the first street railroad company in Connecticut (the Fair 
 Haven and Westville H. R. R. Co.), and was its president for eight years. While 
 in this position most of the present laws of the State concerning such railroads 
 were secured by his labor. He has been interested in steam railroads as well and 
 has been a director in the Highland Suspension Bridge Co., and in the New Eno-- 
 land and Erie R. R. Co. He is now (1881) one of the directors of the New Haven 
 and Derby R. R. Co., and his connection with each of these corporations arose from 
 his desire to advance the interests of New Haven by establishing direct connection 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 135 
 
 With the West. No enterprise and no movement affecting his city's interests at 
 home or abroad has failed to secure his hearty support. 
 
 A desire — implanted in his youth among the rugged Woodbridge hills — to aid, 
 with whatever power he possessed, right political principles and purposes, and to 
 fight manfully the wrong, combined with unusual natural aptitude for those political 
 struggles in which every true American should take a part, led Mr. Sperry into 
 politics very early in life. His rare ability for organization, accurate judgments of 
 men, large executive capacity, unswerving honesty in business relations, and fidelity 
 to the obligations of personal friendship, have steadily advanced him in this regard, 
 and for a quarter of a century he has been a conspicuous figure not only in the 
 politics of the State, but also in those of the nation. Having served his appren- 
 ticeship in the town and city governments of New Haven, the years 1854-55 found 
 him the head of the American organization in Connecticut. In 1855 his party would 
 have been glad to nominate him for Governor of the State — and would have 
 elected him — but he was only 27 years old, and therefore disqualified for this high 
 office. But he was nominated to be Secretary of State, and elected. Having served 
 very acceptably, he was elected to a second term. During that most critical period, 
 some years before the civil war, and while it was in progress, he was chairman of 
 the State Republican Committee. At every point he proved a successful general, 
 and he won every campaign he conducted. His greatest victory was achieved in 
 the campaign of 1 860, which resulted in the election of Connecticut's honored " war 
 Governor," William A. Buckingham, and virtually paved the way for the subsequent 
 election of Abraham Lincoln to be President of the United States. In 1868 he 
 was president of the State Convention which nominated the electors who voted 
 for General Grant. 
 
 A man who had proved his ability in such a signal manner at home, could 
 not be spared from the politics of the nation; and in 1855 he appeared as a 
 member of the Philadelphia American Convention, and one of its Committee on 
 Resolutions. As might have been expected, he "bolted" when that convention 
 adopted a pro-slavery platform. In 1856 he was a member of the convention which 
 nominated Fillmore and Donelson. But he declined to support these nominees 
 upon the platform which the convention made for them, and with others who 
 agreed with him (among them the late Senator Ferry) attended the convention in 
 New York which nominated General Fremont, and afterward labored earnestly for 
 his election. In 1864 he was a member of the Baltimore Convention which renomi- 
 nated Abraham Lincoln to be President, and at that time was a member and the 
 secretary of the National Republican Committee. He was one of seven selected 
 by the National Committee to conduct the campaign, and secretary of this com- 
 
136 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P^ D I A . 
 
 mittee. For many reasons this was one of the most important organizations to 
 which Mr. Sperry has belonged. The history of its dehberations and doings is yet 
 to be told. 
 
 During the war his labors were of great value to the administration, the army, 
 and the rank and file. As chairman of the local recruiting committee his time 
 was consumed in work at home and at Washington for both the individual soldier 
 and the government.- In actual service he could not have failed to attain a high 
 and responsible position, but as a civilian he was far more helpful than he could 
 have been as a soldier, however prominent he might become in the field. He 
 enjoyed the intimacy and confidence of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, 
 and at the President's special reqoest he visited Washington several times during 
 the war. One ot these visits was made when the bill abolishing slavery was before 
 Congress ; the President knew how valuable his influeuce would be in its favor, 
 and the result justified his trust in him and his call for his assistance. No one 
 in this section of the country was honored by a closer intimacy with President 
 Lincoln or more potent with his administration. 
 
 By President Lincoln Mr. Sperry was appointed Post-master of New Haven 
 in 1861, and he has held that office ever since by a succession of re-appointments 
 to the great satisfaction of his fellow-citizens of ail parties. Up to this time he 
 has been Post-master of New Haven for 18 consecutive years, and the number 
 will be 20 when his present term expires. He is the oldest Post-master by Pres- 
 idential appointment in the United States. The general acquiescence in his retention 
 of the place, the steady and marked advance of the facilities ot the office under 
 his administration, and its high rank among the other post-offices of the couutry, 
 are strong arguments for that feature of civil service reform which calls for tno 
 selection of the fittest and retains them in the service of the nation. The esteen. 
 in which he has been held as a post-master was shown by his selection, when 
 ex-Governor A. W. Randall was Post-Master General, as a member of the commission 
 (Hon. John A. Kasson being chairman) to go abroad and examine the methods 
 of foreign postal systems, in order to discover if they contained any features which 
 might with profit be engrafted upon our own. He was to continue to be Post- 
 master of New Haven during his absence; but he felt compelled to decline the 
 appointment. 
 
 Recently the ability which he displayed in the political field, the days of civil 
 strife, and in the postal service, has been enlisted in the service of peace, he hav- 
 ing been made by Governor Andrews one of the State's Commissioners to the 
 World's Fair to be held in New York, in 1883, in commemoration of the beginning 
 of the peace which followed the war of the revolution. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 137 
 
 This record would be incomplete if it did not contain a reference to a victory 
 of which Mr. Sperry is as proud as of any other achievement of his eventful life. 
 In the year 1878, a majority of the New Haven Board of Education voted to 
 discontinue the religious exercises in the public schools. Mr. Sperry became aroused, 
 and he conducted a most vigorous campaign against this majority. The teachings 
 which he received in his country home, in the district school, and in the church 
 of his youth, impelled him to a most energetic championship of the retention of 
 the time-honored religious instruction which had been so suddenly thrust aside. 
 Fortifying his position by strong arguments he addressed with great force and 
 power large audiences in many of the New Haven churches in favor of the Bible, 
 and used his pen with vigor second only to that of his voice and presence. So strong 
 a public sentiment did he arouse, that at the school election which very soon fol- 
 lowed, it was voted, almost three to one, to restore to the schools these rehgious 
 exercises, Protestants and Roman Catholics uniting upon his side. 
 
 He is now in the full vigor and maturity of his powers, a tower of strength 
 to his friends — to so many of whom he lent the helping hand in their youth or 
 in their need — and a man whom his opponents cannot fail to respect. The ser- 
 vices he has already rendered to his city and his country, and the party which repre- 
 sents his principles, can never be forgotten, and they will be his monument when he 
 shall have passed away, if indeed, still greater honors are not in store for him. 
 
 Mr. Sperry was married in 1847, to Ehza H., daughter of Willis and Catherine 
 Sperry of Woodbridge. Mrs. Sperry died in 1873, leaving two daughters as the fruit 
 of this union. In the winter of 1875, Mr. Sperry was married to Minnie, daughter 
 of Erastus and Caroline Newton, of Lockport, N. Y. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 INGSLEY, JAMES LUCE, Professor of the Latin Language and Litera 
 ture in Yale College, after having been a member of the academical faculty 
 for over fifty years, died July 31st, 1852. 
 
 The name of Professor Kingsley is not so well known to the public as 
 that of some of the other college officers who , were his contemporaries. But, 
 at the time of his death, Professor Thatcher said "No man had been more concerned 
 than he in the internal progress of the institution." Professor Thatcher said fur- 
 ther, that he was " a master in nearly every department of learning," and that he was 
 " one of the main elements of strength in the college." President Woolsey also gave 
 it as his .testimony that " in the variety of his acquirements he had rarely been 
 equalled by American scholars." 
 
 Professor .Kingsley was born August 28th, 1778, in Scotland, a parish of the town 
 of Windham, Conn. After spending a year in the college at Williamstown, Mass., he 
 entered Yale College in May, 1797, and graduated in 1799. In 1801 he became a tutor; 
 and in 1805, when President Dwight developed his plans for the establishment of per- 
 manent professorships, he was chosen Professor of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin 
 Languages, and of Ecclesiastical History. This appointment he held unchanged till a 
 separate professorship of Greek having been established in 183 1, the duties of his 
 chair were limited to instruction in the Latin language and literature. 
 
 It was a fortunate circumstance for the college that its first permanent professor 
 of the learned languages was a man who had a proper appreciation of the importance 
 of thorough training. Distinguished as he was himself for elegant scholarship and the 
 variety and exactness of his knowledge, he never grew wearied in his exertions to 
 elevate the standard of scholarship among the students. When he commenced his 
 duties as an instructor, the only Greek which was required during the academical 
 course was the New Testament. He at once introduced the Iliad as a text-book. 
 In 1804, the "Gra?ca Minora" having been published in this country, he gave it to 
 the first class which was admitted to college after he became professor ; and a few 
 years later the " Grseca Majora" having appeared in Edinburgh, containing copious 
 selections from the best Greek authors, he imported the work, and was the first to 
 introduce it for the use of college classes. In the department of the Latin language 
 he also prepared himself editions of several Latin authors for the use of the students. 
 These efforts made at the beginning of his career were never intermitted, and to the 
 last he showed undiminished interest in the advance of the college in all liberal cul- 
 ture. President Woolsey said that he, perhaps, had introduced more new text-books 
 into the college course of study than any other person. Professor Thatcher adds that 
 it should not be forgotten that all this was accomplished when " from first to last 
 there was no proficient in the languages above him or before him, whom he mio-ht 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 
 
 139 
 
 consult, and thus obtain the guidance of another's experience in those branches of 
 instruction, or the fruit of another's greater learning. Nor did he enjoy those facilities 
 of intercourse with foreign countries which are now so common, which bring to our 
 hands, with so little delay, all the results of European scholarship." With a scanty supply 
 of books, with almost no society in his studies, and diverted also by the necessity of 
 giving instruction in whatever other branches of literature or science his class might 
 be pursuing, he yet succeeded in awakening an interest in classical study which it is 
 not too much to say was felt far beyond the college, and which extended to all the 
 institutions of learning throughout the country. 
 
 It was not, however, alone by his successful efforts in his own proper department 
 that Professor Kingsley served the college. He gave a course of lectures to the 
 senior class on philology ; and another course to the same class on chronology and 
 various other topics introductory to the study of history. These lectures were greatly 
 valued, and President Woolsey said that in the department of history Professor 
 Kingsley always seemed to him to be " strongest and to surpass himself." 
 
 Early in his career, also, when he was called upon to teach the various branches 
 of mathematics, and afterwards, at the time of the death of Professor Alexander M. 
 Fisher, when he was looked to for aid in maintaining that department, Professor 
 Thatcher says, " he carried into these studies the same wakeful mind, as ready to be 
 interested in the facts and investigations of science, and the skilful processes in 
 mathematics, as in the more elegant pursuits of literature." When the study of 
 Euclid was first introduced into the curriculum it was at his instance. He was 
 the first instructor in the college who ever heard a class recite fluxions, and his last 
 service as a teacher was rendered in assisting to examine in algebra some of the 
 candidates for admission to the Freshman class at the Commencement of 1852, a 
 few days before his death. 
 
 During the interval which elapsed between the death of Dr. Dwight and the 
 appointment of his successor he instructed the senior class in the moral sciences and 
 in the other studies which devolve upon the President. From the first to the last, 
 also, during his whole life he was always ready to devote himself in the most 
 unselfish manner to the interests of the college in all ways that were within his 
 power. Among the important services which he rendered, mention should be made 
 of the fact that for many years almost every college document was the production 
 of his ready pen. 
 
 Professor Kingsley was a frequent contributor to the periodical literature of the 
 country, and rendered signal service to the cause of letters by rectifying errors and 
 exposing false pretences to scholarship. He was deeply interested in the history of 
 his native State; and at the time of his death it was said no person was better 
 
I40 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 acquainted than he with its written and unwritten history. His published contri- 
 butions on this subject are not numerous, yet his address on the occasion of the 
 celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of New Haven and 
 a sketch which he prepared of the history of Yale College, will ever be considered 
 of great value. 
 
 §EDGWICK, JOHN, Major-General of Volunteers in the United States Army. 
 Born in Cornwall, Conn., September 13th, 1813. On the 1st of July, 1833, he 
 ,^ entered the United States Mihtary Academy at West Point, as a cadet from 
 " his congressional district, and graduated from that institution on the ist of 
 July, 1837, when he was promoted in the army to the rank of Second Lieutenant 
 of the Second Artillery. In 183 7-8 he served in the Florida war against the 
 Seminole Indians; was engaged in the skirmish near Fort Clinch, on May 20th, 
 1838; in service with the Cherokee nation in 1838, during their enforced emigration 
 to the West; on recruiting service in 1838-9; on the northern frontier at Buffalo 
 N. Y., during the Canadian border disturbances in 1839, ^tid was commissioned 
 First Lieutenant of the Second Artillery, on April 19th of the same year. Garrison 
 duty in different forts followed until 1846, when he was called upon to take part 
 in the war with Mexico. 
 
 In Mexico Lieutenant Sedgwick shared in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle 
 of Cerro Gordo, the skirmish of Amazoque, the capture of San Antonio, the battles 
 of Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec, and the assault and capture of 
 the City of Mexico. For gallant and meritorious services in these several engage- 
 ments, he received the brevet, first, of captain, on the 20th of August, and second, 
 of major, on the 13th of September, 1867. On the 26th of January, 1847, he was 
 commissioned Captain of the Second Artillery, and Major of the First Cavalry on 
 March 8th, 1855. In the latter year active and stirring duties broke up the monot- 
 ony of garrison life. In 1855-6 he was occupied in queUing the border disturbances 
 in Kansas; in 1857 he took part in the Cheyenne expedition, and was engaged in 
 the action on Solomon's Fork of the Kansas River, July 29th, 1857, and again in 
 the skirmish near Grand Saline, on the 6th of August of the same year. He was 
 

 MA..! --'"■.£]-:_ .JL'TiM £E i: :jV\':r:K _ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.H D I A . 141 
 
 also a member of the military expedition to Utah in 1857-8, and in i860 com- 
 manded the expedition against the Kiovvas and Comanches. 
 
 Commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Cavalry on March i6th, 
 as Colonel of the First Cavalry, April 25th; and in command of the Fourth Cavalry, 
 August 3d, 1861 ; he served, during the rebellion of the seceding States, in the 
 defences of Washington, from June to August 3d, 1861 ; as Acting Inspector-General 
 of the Department of Washington, August 3-12, 1861 ; and in command of a brigade 
 in the defences of Washington, August 12, 1861, to February 20th, 1862. On the 
 31st of August, 1861, he received his commission as Brigadier-General of United 
 Volunteers. 
 
 In February and March, 1862, General Sedgwick was in command of the division 
 guarding the Potomac, about Poolsville, Md. He also commanded a division of 
 the army of the Potomac in the Virginia Peninsular campaign, March-August, 
 1862, being engaged in the siege of Yorktown, April 5th-May 4th, 1862, and in 
 the battles of Fair Oaks, Peach Orchard, Savage Station, and Glendale, in the 
 latter of which he was wounded, June 30th, 1862. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1862, Sedgwick received his well-earned commission as 
 major-general of United States Volunteers. 
 
 Rejoining the army on December 2 2d, 1862, he took part in the Rappahan- 
 nock campaign, in command of the Ninth Corps. On the 5th of February, 1863, 
 he assumed command of the Sixth Corps, in the army of the Potomac, and won a 
 signal victory over General Early at the storming of Marye's Hill, on May 3d, 1863. 
 Forming powerful assaulting parties, he determined to storm the Confederate works 
 along their entire occupied line. " The storming parties moved at near eleven 
 o'clock in the morning. The onset was furious, and was gallantly resisted. Steadily 
 the Nationals moved on, in defiance of a galling fire from artillery and small- 
 arms, driving Barksdale from his shelter at the stone wall, scaling Marye's Hill, 
 seizing the rifle-pits and batteries, and capturing full two hundred prisoners, at the 
 cost to Sedgwick of about a thousand men — the Sixth Maine First planting the 
 National Flag upon the captured works in token of triumph." Lossings Civil 
 War in America, vd. iii. p. 35- In the battle of Salem, which followed this 
 triumph, he was overmatched by the superior forces and advantages of the enemy, 
 and compelled to re-cross the Rappahannock. The desperate character of the fight- 
 ing in which he had been engaged, may be inferred from the fact that in the 
 brief space of two days he had lost more than one-fifth of his entire command. 
 
 In the Pennsylvania campaign General Sedgwick commanded the Sixth corps 
 in the army of the Potomac; was engaged— after a forced march— in the battle of 
 Gettysburgh, July 2-3, 1863; in the pursuit of the enemy to Warrenton, Virginia; 
 
142 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 in the Rapidan campaign, from September to December, 1863, and was in com- 
 mand of the right wing, consisting of the Fifth and Sixth Corps of the army 
 of the Potomac, in the combat of Rappahannock station, November 7th, 1863- 
 There he " found the strong works thrown up previously by the Nationals on the 
 north side of the river, and now covering a pontoon bridge occupied by about two 
 thousand men of Early's division of Ewell's corps. These works, consisting of a 
 fort, two redoubts, and lines of rifle-pits, were on a ridge, with an open lowlandi 
 traversed by a muddy ditch, and a dry moat deep and broad, between them and 
 the approaching Nationals. Sedgwick reached the vicinity at noon, and behind a 
 hill, a mile aw^ay, he formed a battle-line, and then gradually advanced toward the 
 river on each flank of the works." Just before sunset, orders were given to storm, 
 and the troops gallantly performed the task. " With fixed bayonets the van of the 
 stormers rushed through a tempest of canister shot and bullets." The slaughter 
 was fearful, but the onset was irresistible. " Over sixteen hundred prisoners, with 
 four guns, eight battle-flags, two thousand small-arms, and the pontoon bridge, were 
 the fruits of the National victory," achieved at a loss of about three hundred in 
 killed and wounded. He was subsequently engaged in the operations at Mine 
 Run from November 26th to December 3d, in 1863. 
 
 General Sedgwick's last campaign was in command of the fighting Sixth Corps 
 of the Army of the Potomac, May 4-9th, 1864, in which he bore a distinguished and 
 heroic part in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5th and 6th. " The Wilderness, 
 henceforth to be historic, stretches westward from Chancellorsville. The region for a 
 space of a dozen miles is seamed with veins of iron ore. These have been wrought 
 for five generations. Here, indeed, were erected the first regular iron furnaces in 
 North America. The forests had been cut down to furnish fuel for these furnaces. 
 The soil, being generally too poor to repay culture, the region was left to Nature, 
 which soon covered it with a dense mass of dwarf pines, scrubby oaks, chinquapins, 
 and the hke. Every stump left by the woodman's axe sent up a cluster of sprouts 
 in place of the parent trunk. Whortleberries and brambles of every kind, availing 
 themselves of the temporary flood of sunshine, turned and matted themselves into 
 thickets, through which the solitary huntsman could make his way only by dra?o-incr 
 his rifle after him. The surface was an elevated plateau, swelling everywhere into 
 low hills and ridges, with swampy intervals between, along which sluggish brooks 
 make their way toward the Rapidan on the North and the Mattapony on the 
 South." Harpers History of the Great Rebellion, p. 488. 
 
 In that terrible hand-to-hand struggle, manoeuvring, in a military sense, was 
 almost impossible. " By the compass alone, like mariners at murky midnio-ht, the 
 movements of troops were directed. The three hundred guns of the combatants had 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO FJSD I A . 143 
 
 no avocation there, and the few horsemen not away on outward duty were compelled 
 to be almost idle spectators. Of the two hundred thousand men there ready to fall 
 upon and slay each other, probably no man's eyes saw more than a thousand at any 
 one time, so absolute were the concealments of the thickets. Never in the history of 
 war was such a spectacle exhibited. Military skill was of little account, and Grant 
 knew it, and so he gave but the single general order — 'Attack along the zuhole line at 
 five clock.'" The attack was delivered by the gallant Sedgwick and his men with their 
 wonted courage and resolution ; but he lost heavily in unsuccessful attempts to carry 
 Ewell's intrenched positions. At sunset, the entire right wing of the army seemed to 
 be in great peril from the headlong charge of a heavy column of the enemy, led by 
 General Gordon. Sedgwick, however, promptly checked the advance of the Con- 
 federates, and the darkness made it impossible for them to do any more. The 
 National army held its ground, and, at the same time, gained the substantial 
 advantage of forcing Lee to retire behind his intrenchments, and to await further 
 developments. There he stood, at bay, on the morning of Saturday, May 7th. 
 
 On the 9th, while General Sedgwick was making a personal reconnoisance, and 
 directing the placing of some artillery for the battle of Spottsylvania, one of the 
 rebel sharp-shooters " inflicted irreparable injury upon the Union army, by sending a 
 bullet through the brain of the gallant commander while he was giving directions for 
 strengthening the intrenchments on his front. He fell dead, and there was sincere 
 mourning throughout the army, for the soldiers loved him ; and the loyal people of 
 the land felt bereaved, for a true patriot had fallen." Lossings Civil War in 
 America, vol. iii., p. 306. 
 
 A life-like statue, representing him with head uncovered and at parade rest, 
 surmounts a monument erected to his memory at the northwest angle of the grassy 
 plain at West Point. The statue is wrought out of cannon captured by the Sixth 
 Corps, and was inaugurated in 1S68, on which occasion George William Curtis 
 delivered one of his most eloquent orations. 
 
144 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO PyE D I A . 
 
 *m5>j|£7 'INCH ESTER, OLIVER F., of New Haven, ex-Lieutenant Governor of 
 
 '^wiw Connecticut, was born in Boston, Mass., November 30th, i8jo, of humble 
 
 » t^* parents. Owing to the death of his father, the care of a large family 
 
 e?^ devolved upon the mother ; this circumstance resulted in the subject of 
 
 our sketch being thrown upon his own resources while still almost an infant. 
 
 By various means, on farm, in office, and workshop, he earned his own livelihood 
 for years before he reached the age when he could become an apprentice. At 
 fourteen he was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner in Boston, succeeding so well 
 in acquiring a knowledge of this trade as to enable him to purchase from his 
 employer the last year of his apprenticeship. 
 
 Removing at this time to Baltimore, he followed his trade as journeyman and 
 master-builder for several years. In 1837, a gloomy and disastrous year for merchants, 
 he opened a store for the sale of men's furnishing goods in the same city, prosecuted 
 the new undertaking with success, and revealed his inventive genius in the production 
 of a perfectly fitting dress-shirt, for which he I'eceived a patent on the ist of 
 February, 1848. Soon afterward he sold out his establishment, and entered into 
 partnership with John M. Davies, Jones & Co., prominent importers and jobbers of 
 the same class of goods in New York, under the style and title of Winchester & 
 Davies. There he assumed entire direction of the shirt manufacture, and established 
 a factory at New Haven, which funiished employment during later years to six 
 thousand people in and around the city. Successful from the outset, the adoption 
 of the sewing machine in 1852 added at once to the profitableness and to the 
 working capacity of the manufactory. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Winchester became purchaser of the assets of the Volcanic Arms 
 Company, of New Haven, then bankrupt, and by his management developed from 
 this unpromising germ the large and successful manufacturing concern bearing the 
 name of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. 
 
 The Winchester repeating rifle had its origin in the Jennings repeating gun, 
 well known prior to 1850, and which about that year passed into the hands of 
 Messrs. Smith & Wesson, then of Norwich, Conn., who after spending about five 
 years' time in making and endeavoring to introduce some valuable improvements, sold 
 it in 1855 to a corporation in New Haven known as the Volcanic Repeating Arms 
 Company, which company was organized for the purpose of manufacturing it, but became 
 insolvent ; the assets were purchased by Mr. Winchester, who after two years demon, 
 strated the fact that the Volcanic arms were too deficient in power to meet with 
 active demand, and consequently their production was suspended, and Mr. Winchester 
 formed a new company called the New Haven Arms Company. 
 
 In i860 the superintendent of the company, B. T; Henry, patented improvements 
 
-~^f 
 
 -.Ji '.■^t3a^^'li.:^U^; .i L 'ViLTii^ u-:. T'lr-A 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.Ii D I A . 145 
 
 Which proved successful, and the company honored him by giving to the new 
 improved arm his name. The Henry Rifle achieved a world-wide reputation during 
 the Civil War, and proved a very valuable adjunct in the suppression of the Rebellion, 
 and received high praise from distinguished officers for its serviceable qualities. 
 
 The manufacture of this gun was abandoned in 1865, and the New Haven Arms 
 Company was dissolved, and merged into the present company, organized as the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Company, who commenced the manufacture of new and 
 greatly improved arms, know as the Winchester Repeaters. 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Winchester sold out his interest in the firm of Winchester & 
 Davies, and thenceforward devoted himself to the interests of the company which 
 bears his name. 
 
 The arms bearing his name can be found in every country of the world, and 
 their reputation is so wide that it is needless here to make any extended remarks 
 relative to them, suffice to say that for beauty of finish, ease of manipulation, 
 accuracy and rapidity of fire, they have no equal. 
 
 In addition to the manufacture of the arms bearing the name of Winchester they 
 are also extensively engaged in the manufacture of the Hotchkiss repeater, which, 
 as altered and improved by them, has been adopted by the Ordnance Department 
 for use by the United States Army. The Navy Department have also adopted 
 this arm for its war ships. The exclusive right to this specific manufacture is by 
 purchase in the hands of the company. The Hotchkiss repeater is a simple, strong 
 weapon, ar\d permits the use of the heaviest charges of powder and bullet used in 
 any ordinary breech-loading arm. The Hotchkiss differs from the Winchester in 
 this respect — while the Winchester is operated by a lever on the under side of 
 the breech mechanism and has the magazine parallel with the barrel on the under 
 side, the Hotchkiss is operated by a bolt on the top, said bolt being one of the 
 chief component parts of the lock mechanism, and has the magazine in the butt 
 
 sttDck. 
 
 The company is also extensively engaged in the manufacture of metallic ammu- 
 nition, and with their extensive plant of patented machinery are capable of producing 
 one and a half millions of cartridges of every variety in a day, and four to five 
 
 hundred guns. 
 
 In the science and art of political philosophy and also of political economy 
 Oliver F. Winchester is a solid and indispensable factor. His fearfully destructive 
 inventions and fabrications, as all history and experience attest, circumscribe the 
 ravages of war, and shorten the period of its terrors by reducing it to the absurd- 
 ities of comparative suicide. Devotion to business pursuits has not extinguished, 
 but rather intensified, practical interest in public affkirs. The Commonwealth of 
 
146 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Connecticut consulted its own interests in 1866, in his election to the office of 
 Lieutenant Governor. Looking under the surface of social movements to those 
 forces which inspire the love of learning and the progress of industrial and fine 
 art, he has also been and continues to be a generous patron of religious and benev- 
 olent institutions, an ardent admirer of horticultural pursuits, as his ample grounds 
 fully testify, and a generous and devoted patron of pomology. 
 
 Not alone will his name be perpetuated on account of the war materials of 
 his manufacture, but his adopted city will ever remember him in his connection 
 with the astronomical department of Yale College, which, in view of his generous 
 endowment, has honored him by naming its observatory the Winchester Observatory. 
 
 Mr. Winchester was married in the year 1834, in Boston, to Miss Hope of 
 that city. Of his four children but two are living, a son and daughter. 
 
 1 
 
 jOSTER, LA FAYETTE S., of Norwich, ex-Senator of the United States from 
 Connecticut, ex- President pro tempore of the Senate, and ex-Acting Vice-Pres- 
 ident of the United States from 1865 to 1867. He was born in Franklin, 
 Connecticut, in 1806, and was the son of Captain Daniel Foster, a Revo- 
 lutionary soldier, who shared in the glory of the victory at Saratoga in 1777. His 
 paternal grandmother was Hannah Standish, a descendant of the renowned Plymouth 
 captain, Miles Standish. The blood of other eminent Puritans flowed in his veins 
 and gave cool reason, wise decision, and resolute persistence to his character. He 
 began life, as .multitudes of eminent New Englanders have done, in penury ahd 
 comparative fr'.endlessness. By his own energy and good sense he acquired the 
 blessings of a good education. Graduating from Brown University, Providence, R. I., 
 with the highest honors in 1828, 'he immediately began the study of law in 
 Norwich. 
 
 Admitted to practice at the bar, he established himself at Norwich, and soon 
 rose to the higher plane of professional practitioners, and also to prominence in local 
 affairs. His political career began in 1839, when he was elected as a Whig to the 
 State General Assembly. He represented Norwich in that body for six years, and 
 was thrice elected Speaker. For two years he was mayor of Norwich, and at the 
 second election received every vote cast. In 1850 he was the candidate of the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.IL D I A . 147 
 
 Whig party for the gubernatorial chair, but was rejected by the majority of the 
 citizens at the polls. In 1854 the public so far appreciated his sterling talents 
 and unbending integrity as to applaud his election to the Senate of the United 
 States. He joined the Republican party in 1855, and was re-elected to his emi- 
 nently honorable post in i860. From the 4th of March, 1855, to the 4th of March, 
 1867, he occupied his seat in the most august and dignified body of American 
 legislators. This period of service covered the exciting and critical interval before 
 the rebellion, and also the no less exciting and critical interval between its close 
 and the adoption of reconstructionary constitutional amendments by the several 
 States more immediately interested. His sympathies and convictions were naturally 
 and intelligently on the side of the enslaved colored people, and of the indissolu- 
 bility of the American Union. 
 
 Senator Foster's educated prevision saw distinctly the black portentous clouds 
 of civil war through the confusion, doubt, and anxiety that prevailed in the winter 
 of 1 860-1. He believed that the Secessionists were sincere, and meant to adheie 
 literally to their professions. It is related, on good authority, that on January ist, 
 1 86 1, Mr. Sew^ard, of whom Senator Foster was a great friend, gave a dinner party 
 from which the latter was necessarily absent, but which was attended by his wife. 
 Preston King, of New York, sat next to that lady at table, and entered into con- 
 versation with her on the existing political complications. She ventured to express 
 the opinion that the country was drifting into civil war, and was so piqued by 
 his slighting reply that she fortified her own opinion by saying that it was shared 
 by her husband. Mr. King thereupon inquired if Senator Foster really entertained 
 such an idea, and when assured that he did, leaned back in his chair, and laughed 
 long and heartily, if not rudely. The future was veiled to his eyes, as to those of 
 many other statesmen accustomed to deal only with the surface currents that 
 agitate human society. The Connecticut Senator's sounding-lead had gone much 
 deeper, and obliged him to draw" the inferences which were so soon and terribly 
 justified by events. 
 
 Mr. Foster was quite willing, at the time, to make large sacrifices in order to 
 avert an open rupture ; but when the hand of unprovoked treason had been vio- 
 lently raised against the life of the nation, he advocated the prosecution of the war 
 for its suppression with the utmost vigor, and to the bitter end. He had no 
 confidence in the wisdom and expediency of the peace movement in 1864, nor 
 with the schemes of honest and humane, but unmilitary and impulsive Horace 
 Greeley. When the war was ended he did favor the speedy restoration of the 
 Southern States to their constitutional relations with the Federal Government, and 
 to the largest degree of self-government consistent with the Constitution. He could 
 
148 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 not accompany the Radical section of the Republican party to extreme lengths in 
 the prosecution of their policy, and therefore, in all probability, failed to obtain a 
 third election to the National Senate. Nor could he approve the impeachment of 
 President Andrew Johnson, which took place after his term of service had expired 
 in the Senate. During the last two years of his membership in that body, he 
 occupied the Vice-President's chair, to which he was chosen on Johnson's accession 
 to the Presidency at the death of Lincoln, and which he yielded to Senator Wade, 
 of Ohio, in 1867. 
 
 In 1870, without having performed previous service on the bench of the 
 Superior Court, Senator Foster was elected to the justiciary of the Supreme Court 
 of Connecticut, and discharged the duties of his post until the fall of 1876, when 
 the constitutional limit of age was reached, and he retired to less public Hfe. As a 
 judge, he was notable for his aversion to technicalities and verbosity, for his keenness 
 and promptitude in seizing the essential merits of a question, and for his strong 
 instinct of justice. These characteristics were particularly apparent in his performance 
 of Superior Court duty ; and reminded literary observers of Haroun al Raschid, the 
 famous old Caliph of Bagdad, who went about in disguise among his people, that 
 he might acquaint himself with evils which otherwise would not have come under 
 his notice. In criminal cases he was sternly just, and led many to wish that he 
 might continuously exercise judicial functions, for that very reason. In 1869 he was 
 appointed Professor of Law in the Law School associated with Yale College. 
 
 After his retirement from the Senate in 1867, Mr. Foster declined active partici- 
 pation in pohtics. Dissatisfied with what he felt to be the abuses of President 
 Grant's administration, he identified himself with the Liberal movement in 1872, 
 although Horace Greeley was not his choice for the chief magistracy. In the spring of 
 1875 he reluctantly accepted nomination for Congress from the Democrats and Liberals 
 of the Third Connecticut District, but still held the same sentiments that led him into 
 the Liberal movement in 1872. When Rutherford B. Hayes received nomination for 
 the Presidency in 1876, he hailed it as the promise of pure administration and of milder 
 policy toward the South, and again avowed his allegiance to the Republican party. 
 His old poHtical friends and associates were as glad of his return to their ranks as 
 he was to find himself once more in their company, and tendered a local legislative 
 nomination, which, if accepted, would have resulted in his election, selection as 
 Speaker, and probably as United States Senator also. The honor, however, was 
 declined. 
 
 After his retirement from judicial duty. Senator Foster devoted himself to the 
 practice of his profession, and his services in difficult cases were in constant demand. 
 In the proposal for the establishment of an international code he felt the deepest 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 149 
 
 interest, and was invited to take part in the meeting held in Belgium in 1877 to 
 mature the scheme. For this service he was particularly adapted by his close study of 
 foreign affairs, his singular acquaintance with the diplomatic history of Europe, and 
 the individual knowledge acquired by extensive travel in its several countries. Some 
 years ago he was honored by election to membership in the Cobden Club, the 
 famous English free-trade organization, with whose doctrines he held a qualified 
 sympathy, but of which he was not a zealous propagandist. His theories rather 
 expressed the golden mean between free trade and prohibitory tariffs, to which the 
 sentiments of the general public seem now to be converging. 
 
 In the winter of 1879 M^- Foster's name was frequently mentioned as that of 
 a most fitting man for appointment as United States Minister to Great Britain; 
 but the eventual choice fell upon another. " Aside from general scholarship," 
 wrote an appreciative critic, "his eminence in jurisprudence, and his long practical 
 experience in pubhc affairs, he had the additional and important qualification for the 
 post of polished manners, thorough familiarity with the requirements of its social code, 
 and delightful conversational powers. Well read, apt at quotation, quick at repartee, 
 brimfol of genial humor, kindly in spirit, and possessed of a rare wife, he understood 
 the art of hospitality to perfection. He acquired, during the long years of his honest 
 industry, a handsome competence." In all local affairs, educational and otherwise, his 
 warmest sympathies were enlisted. His physical vigor was as remarkable as his 
 intellectual force. Both were compelled to succumb, in the brief space of a single 
 week, to the deadly power of malarial fever. Dr. Fordyce Barker, of New York, 
 and other skilful physicians, attempted in vain to prolong his life. That soon passed 
 beyond the reach of human help, and the eloquent orator, learned jurist, and Christian 
 statesman had exchanged the activities of this terrestrial for those of a celestial life, 
 before it was generally known that he was ill. His wife survives him. His three 
 children, by a former wife, died while young. 
 
 The Rev. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, pastor of the Park Congregational Church 
 in Norwich, in a communication to the New York Independent, pertinent to the 
 discussion initiated by that paper, of the expediency of so amending the national 
 Constitution as to make ex-Presidents of the United States members of the 
 national Senate for life, says of Senator Foster, that he was one of the most 
 beloved and venerated members of his flock. Mr. Bacon's sketch of the deceased 
 statesman is worthy of permanent place in his biography. Mr. Bacon says of him 
 that he was " for the twelve most momentous years of American history a Senator 
 of the United States, and for a part of that time was President of the Senate, 
 and, after the death of President Lincoln and the accesssion of Mr. Johnson to 
 the Presidency, succeeded to the chair of Vice-President. Until the expiration of 
 
ISO BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 his senatorial term he fulfilled the duties of this high position with a dignity, a 
 fine courtesy, and a commanding ability which I have often heard spoken of by 
 public men, but never spoken of except with admiration. The greatness of his 
 public services during those memorable years is not at all to be measured by his 
 official station, or his public acts. Few men were more resorted to for private 
 personal counsel by Abraham Lincoln — as, one after another, or many at a time, 
 the awful questions of the war emerged — than the upright, clear-headed, learned 
 Senator from Connecticut ; and in the hardly less stormy days of reconstruction, 
 when great measures were pending, there was no place where men whose single 
 anxiety was to do the best thing for the whole country were more apt to find 
 each other in private conference than at Senator Foster's apartment. 
 
 " From the second position in the Republic Mr. Foster returned, in the ripe 
 strength of his manhood, to his home in Norwich, and to the absolute level of 
 private citizenship. . . . He came back to his fellow-citizens, as he went from 
 among them, with 'clean hands and a pure heart,' and resumed practice as a 
 lawyer. Something had been lost, no doubt, by the long disuse of his profession 
 — something of facility in practice, something of the ' run of business.' But more 
 had been gained in solidity of mind, in breath of character, in a reputation wide 
 as the continent; so that, if there were what would have been difficulty in his 
 taking at once just the place he had left, there was no difficulty at all in his 
 taking a place higher and more honorable. 
 
 "Those that best knew Mr. Foster and the needs of the public service grudged 
 that his large and unselfish wisdom, ripened by an experience so long and excep- 
 tional, should be lost to the national councils. He thought it no dishonor, either 
 to himself or to the station he had filled, to serve as a member of the lower 
 house of the Connecticut Legislature, and to accept the Speaker's chair of that 
 unimposing body. For a few years, until retired by law, at the age of seventy, 
 he was judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut, but returned at once from 
 the bench to the bar, of which he was the ornament and pride. 
 
 " It was in these later years only that I have known him well. That courtly, 
 but most genial gentleman, the recollections of whose life were a thrilling chapter 
 of unwritten history, the wit and wisdom of whose table-talk gave added charms 
 to his generous hospitality, was, in point of civil station, only a diligent and hon- 
 orable attorney-at-law. One other office he held. He was teacher of a Bible- 
 class in the Sunday-school of the Park Church. . . . There are few figures in 
 my memory that I recall with more of reverence than that vigorous form, scarcely 
 beginning to droop under the burden of years, and that 'good gray head that all 
 men knew,' standing before his class in animated discourse on a chapter of the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO PJS. D I A. 151 
 
 Word of God, or in words of singular grace and reverent beauty leading the prayers 
 of our Thursday evening meeting. 
 
 " I have only one letter of Senator Foster's, and I am not sure that it will 
 seem to the public of sufficient importance to transcribe ; but it is a cherished 
 possession with me. It reads thus : 
 
 "'Sunday Noon, Oct. 27, 1878. 
 " ' Rev. and Dear Sir : 
 
 " ' I put in my pocket this morning what seemed to me sufficient for my 
 contribution to the cause of foreign missions ; but, after hearing your sermon, I 
 felt ashamed it was so small. I dropped it into the basket, but a sense of shame 
 at its meagreness haunts me still. It's a feeling I can't harbor, and by way of 
 relief I send you the enclosed. Should it please God that the gift be a blessing 
 to others, I hope to be duly grateful. I have the delightful consciousness that it 
 is, at least, a blessing to me. 
 
 " ' With much respect and regard, 
 
 " ' Your friend and parishioner, 
 
 "'L. F. S. Foster.' 
 
 " I have been in the habit, these two years that I have been neighbor to Mr. 
 Foster, of looking upon his diligent, fruitful, and honorable old age as presenting 
 the very type and ideal of a worthy close to the career of a great statesman and 
 public official in a republic such as ours. I have been glad that such an example 
 should be before the eyes of my sons ; and, when visitors from the Old World 
 have come to see me, I have taken pride in pointing to the late acting Vice- 
 President of the United States, taking his modest place and work on an equality 
 with all the rest of us, as a noble and characteristic example of what is best in 
 American Republicanism." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Raggett, DAVID lewis, M.D., of New Haven, Conn. Born in New 
 Haven, June 24th, 1820. His father, Leonard Augustus Daggett, was a 
 mercliant in New Haven, and a native of the same city. His grandfather, 
 Judge David Daggett, was formerly Mayor of New Haven, one of the most 
 eloquent and powerful advocates that adorned the legal profession, an eminent Sena- 
 tor of the United States, a learned professor of law in Yale College, and an able 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, who adorned all the exalted 
 stations he filled with singular ability, integrity, and honor. 
 
 The Daggett family is of the Puritan stock of New England Pilgrims. Dr. 
 Daggett is the seventh in line of direct descent from John Daggett, who came over 
 from England with Winthrop's company in 1630, and settled in Watertown, in the 
 colony of Massachusetts. The mother of Dr. Daggett was Jennett, youngest daughter 
 of Timothy and Susan Atwater, of New Haven. The Atwaters are an old and 
 numerous English family ; but the genealogy of the American branch " has not been 
 traced backward beyond the two brothers who came from London with Davenport 
 and Eaton, and settled in New Haven, in 1638. They were probably parishioners 
 of Davenport when he was Rector of St. Stephen's in Coleman Street." llde Genea- 
 logical Register of the Atwater Family. The names of the two immigrant brothers 
 were Joshua and David. The family of Joshua, in the male line, soon became 
 extinct. David Atwater was one of the first planters of New Haven, and in the 
 division of lands among the settlers a farm was assigned to him in the " Neck," as 
 the tract of land between the Mill and Quinnipiac Rivers was called. His eleventh 
 child, Ebenezer, was born January 13th, 1666; married Abigail Heaton, December 
 9th, 1 69 1, and became the father of four children, of whom James was the third. 
 James was born March 15th, 1698; married Dinah Sherman, July 12th, 1722, and 
 Elizabeth Ailing, March 4th, 1740. He was the father of eleven children, of whom 
 Timothy, the tenth, and the father of Mrs. Leonard A. Daggett, was born November 
 2d, I 749. 
 
 The early education of Dr. Daggett was received in the celebrated Hopkins 
 Grammar School of New Haven. From thence he passed to the Sophomore 
 class of Yale College in 1836, and graduated as A.B. in 1839. Immediately after his 
 collegiate career he removed to Virginia, and there taught school for a brief period. 
 Resolving to exchange the educational for the medical profession, he returned to 
 New Haven, entered the office of Drs. Eli and N. B. Ives, and also attended the 
 regular course of lectures in the Medical Department of the University. Receiving 
 his diploma of M.D. m 1843, he began the practice of medicine in New Haven, 
 and has since prosecuted it on an extensive scale with remarkable activity and 
 success. He has filled the position of Assistant Surgeon, and subsequently of Surgeon, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 153 
 
 to the Knight Hospital in New Haven ; has served as President of the New Haven 
 Medical Association, and has also been President of the County Medical Society. 
 With the State Medical Society he has also been identified as member since his 
 graduation from the Yale School of Medicine. At the Connecticut State Hospital 
 he was Attending Surgeon for a number of years, and subsequently officiated as 
 Consulting Surgeon to the same institution. 
 
 Dr. Daggett was married in 1848 to Margaret, daughter of Dr. William Gib- 
 bons, of Wilmington, Del. Mrs. Daggett died in 1865, leaving three sons — the 
 issue of her marriage — behind her. 
 
 n 
 
 ;|ISK, WILBUR, D.D., of Middletown, Conn., first President of the Wesleyan 
 University. Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, August 31st, 1792. His parents 
 were of the massive, unbending type of the heroic Puritan stock — simple 
 godly souls who feared the Lord and wrought righteousness ; and who, in the 
 working, laid broad and deep the foundations of all liberty, civil and rehgious. By 
 them he was diligently trained to walk in the old paths of religion and moral virtue. 
 To his mother he was especially indebted. Her wise, firm, and gentle love did much 
 to prepare him for future eminent usefulness and honor. In 1809 he entered the 
 Grammar School at Peacham, and in 181 2 matriculated at the University of Vermont, 
 from whence he repaired to Brown University, where he graduated with the diploma 
 of A.B. in 1 8 15. He then began the study of law, but was compelled to desist by 
 the failure of his health. 
 
 Called of God to the work of the Christian ministry, he entered that of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in I618, and soon became distinguished for piety, ability, 
 and unusual success in the prosecution of his labors. His pulpit talents were extraor- 
 dinary, and have rarely been surpassed by those of any American divine. The edge 
 of the sword, however, was too keen for the resistance of the scabbard, and his 
 unwearied labors in the itineracy proved too much for his strength. His feeble health 
 failed under the continuous strain, and necessarily circumscribed the sphere of his 
 usefulness. In 1823 he was appointed presiding elder of the Vermont District, and 
 in 1824 was chosen delegate from the Vermont Annual Conference to the General 
 Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The honor conferred by this election 
 has rarely fallen upon so young a man, and indicated the confidence of his clerical 
 
154 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 brethren in the maturity of his powers and the soundness of his judgment. From 
 that time onward, his energies were specially consecrated to the promotion of Chris- 
 tian education in his own branch of the Church. When he entered the ministry 
 in 1818 "there was not a single literary institution of any note under the patronage 
 of the Church. A few years later, in 1824, he was appointed agent to collect funds 
 for one which had been established in Newmarket, N. H., but he declined the ser- 
 vice because, as he said, it was not established on a permanent basis. Still he was 
 anxious that one should be estabhshed, and through his efforts, with others, the 
 academy at Wilbraham was commenced, and he was appointed its principal in 1826. 
 The spirit which was thus aroused soon demanded an institution of a higher grade. 
 The Northern and Eastern Conferences united to found the Wesleyan University 
 at Middletown." The buildings of the Military Institute, which had been erected 
 under the auspices of Captain Alden Partridge, a former Superintendent of the 
 United States Military Academy at West Point, together with ample space for a 
 college campus, were purchased, and " Dr. Fisk, naturally and without a rival, was 
 elected its first President in 1830." 
 
 " The part he had already taken in awaking the people to the subject [of 
 higher Christian education], his devotion to it, and his solid and splendid talents, 
 made him more than ever a leader in the cause of education in the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. Students gathered to the institution from every part of the 
 nation, and many soon went forth from it who, by his recommendation, became 
 presidents, professors, and teachers in, the rapidly multiplying colleges and seminaries 
 under the patronage of the Church throughout the United States." 
 
 Dr. Fisk's heart was in his work. He believed that he occupied the position 
 where an all-wise Providence designed him to be, and declined to vacate it for one 
 of more signal conspicuity and power, and of more varied usefulness. When elected 
 to the bench of bishops in 1836, he refused consecration to the episcopal office 
 on the ground that he could accomplish more good where he was. " If my health 
 would allow me to perform the work of the episcopacy," he said, " I dare not 
 accept it, for I believe I can do more for the cause of Christ where I am than 
 I could do as a bishop." His deliberate decision was no less wise than honest, and 
 subsequent events justified his choice. His efficiency as an educator of young men 
 for the great work of life, and his share in imparting correct ideas of the value of 
 education to the entire Church, were not less important than the supervisory and 
 administrative work of a general superintendent. 
 
 In 1828 he was elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, 
 but declined the office. In 1829 Brown University honored itself by the recogni- 
 tion of his consummate and cultured gifts in the bestowment of the honorary 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 155 
 
 degree of D.D. In the same year he was elected President of Lagrange College, 
 Alabama, and also professor in the. University of Alabama, both of which offices he 
 declined. His life for many years was an incessant and precarious struggle with 
 pulmonary disease. In 1835-6 he travelled extensively in Europe for the benefit of 
 his health. But medical skill and change of scene and air were alike unavailing, 
 and he died at Middletown on the 2 2d of February, 1838, universally beloved and 
 lamented. 
 
 As an author. Dr. Fisk's reputation rests upon an immovable basis of learning, 
 logic, and piety. Among his writings are : The Calvinistic Controversy (N. Y., 
 iSmo), a volume of remarkable dialectic skill, and couched in forceful but courteous 
 style ; Travels in Europe (N. Y., 1838, 8vo), a work that enjoyed wide circula- 
 tion, and was highly commended ; Sermons and Lecttires on Universalism, in which 
 he assails with energy and wisdom doctrines antipodal to those of the Genevan 
 theologian ; Reply to Pierpoint on the Atonement, and other tracts and sermons. 
 
 President Fisk was modelled after Archbishop Fenelon, whose best mental and 
 moral characteristics he exhibited. Eminently saintly in spirit and in action, he 
 was also remarkable for the perspicuity and logical force of his reasoning, for his 
 flexibility and adroitness in controversy, and for the earnest love of truth and good- 
 ness which stimulated him to close thinking and beneficent procedure. Eloquent 
 and fervid as a preacher, he was excelled by few of his contemporaries in popularity 
 and usefulness. In teaching, he displayed the rare power of kindling the enthusi- 
 asm of his pupils. 
 
 " Take him for all in all, he was a man" of rare symmetry of character, moral 
 and intellectual, of whom all whom he knew would be more willing to say, " Mark 
 the perfect man, and behold the upright," than of any man of his time who held so 
 high a place. Dr. Abel Stevens, the gifted historian of Methodism, describes him as 
 follows: "Wilbur Fisk's person bespoke his character. It was of good size, and 
 remarkable for its symmetry. His features were beautifully harmonious, the contour 
 strongly resembling the better Roman outline, though lacking its most peculiar dis- 
 tinction, the nasus aquilinus. His eye was nicely defined, and, when excited, beamed 
 with a peculiarly benign and concilatory expression. His complexion was bilious, and 
 added to the diseased indication of his somewhat attenuated features. His head was a 
 model, not of great, but of well-proportioned development. It had the height of the 
 Roman brow, though none of the breadth of the Greek. There is a bust of him 
 extant, but it is not to be looked at by any who would not mar in their memories 
 the beautiful and benign image of his earlier manhood by the disfigurations of disease 
 and suffering. His voice was peculiarly flexible and sonorous ; a catarrhal discharge 
 affected it, but just enough, during most of his life, to improve its tone to a soft 
 
156 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 rotund, without a trace of nasal defect. Few men could indicate the moral emotions 
 more effectually by mere tones. It was especially expressiv'^e in pathetic passages. 
 His pulpit manner was marked in the introduction of the sermon by dignity, but 
 dignity without ceremony or pretension. As he advanced into the exposition and 
 argument of his discourse (and there were both in most of his sermons), he became 
 more emphatic, especially as brilliant though brief illustrations ever and anon gleamed 
 upon his logic. By the time he had reached the peroration his utterance became 
 rapid, his thoughts were incandescent, the music of his voice rang out in thrilling 
 tones, and sometimes even quivered with trills of pathos. No imaginative excitement 
 prevailed in the audience, as under Maffitt's eloquence, no tumultuous wonder as under 
 Bascora's, none of Cookman's impetuous passion, or Olin's overwhelming power, but a 
 subduing, almost tranquil spell of genial feeling, expressed often by tears or half- 
 suppressed ejaculations ; something of the kindly effect of Summerfield, combined 
 with a higher intellectual impression. Fisk lived for many years in the faith and 
 exemplification of Paul's subhme doctrine of Christian perfection. He prized that 
 great tenet as one of the most important distinctions of Christianity. His own 
 experience respecting it was marked by signal circumstances; and from the day he 
 practically adopted it, till he triumphed over death, its impress was radiant on his 
 daily life. With John Wesley, he deemed this important truth— promulgated in any 
 very express form almost solely by Methodism in these days— to be one of the most 
 solemn responsibilities of his Church, the most potent element in the experimental 
 divinity of the Scriptures." 
 
 Most of the clerical and lay contemporaries of Dr. Fisk have followed him into 
 the spirit world ; but how they esteemed and honored him in this hard earthly life 
 may be gathered from the July number of the Methodist Quarterly Review for 1852; 
 from Dr. Holdich's Life of Wilbur Fisk (N. Y., 1840, 8vo) ; from Sherman's New 
 England Divines, p. 238; McClintock's Lives of Methodist Ministers, Sprague's 
 Annals, vii., p. 576; Stevens' History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and many 
 other books and periodicals. 
 
 Dr. Fisk left no children, but his venerable wife still (1880) survives, and resides 
 on the college campus at Middletown, Conn. 
 
c^ayi^Piydy 
 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 157 
 
 (@ TEARNS, HENRY PUTNAM, A.M., M.D., Superintendent of the Retreat 
 |?§i| for the Insane, Hartford, Conn. Born in Sutton, Mass., April i8th, 1828. 
 14^:/ His parents were Asa and Mary (Putnam) Stearns. Both were members of 
 y Massachusetts families, and endowed with the characteristic qualities of the 
 
 strong, massive, thoughtful, and energetic people who colonized the State, at the 
 outset of New England history. 
 
 After the usual preparatory education, young Stearns matriculated at Yale Col- 
 lege, from which he honorably graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1853. Natural 
 tastes and aptitudes, together with conviction that largest individual usefulness could 
 be best attained in the medical profession, next led him to attend lectures in the 
 excellent medical schools associated with the Universities of Harvard and Yale, from 
 the latter of which he received the diploma of M.D. in 1855. Desirous of enriching 
 native culture by the best knowledge and most approved ait of the Old World, he 
 then crossed the Atlantic, and spent the two following yeais in diligent study at 
 Edinburgh, in connection with the celebrated school of Scotch physicians and sur- 
 geons, which has added so many eminent names to the list of scientific practitioners 
 of the healing art. 
 
 Returning home in 1857, Dr. Stearns settled at Marlboro, Mass., and there 
 practised successfully until 1859, when he removed to Hartford, Conn. In April, 
 i85i, he was commissioned as surgeon of the First Regiment of Connecticut Vol- 
 unteers, and on the expiration of their three months' term of service, received the 
 appointment of Surgeon of United States Volunteers. In this position he served 
 until September, 1865, when he was honorably discharged, with the brevet of Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel. In 1873 he accepted the responsible position of Superintendent of 
 the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford, and has since been engaged in the discharge 
 of the duties pertaining to that office. 
 
 Dr. Stearns is a member of the Connecticut State Medical Society ; of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science ; of the New England 
 Psychological Society, and of sundry other learned bodies. His contributions to 
 medical literature have mainly taken the form of pamphlets reprinted from medical 
 journals. They deal with questions, some of which are old as humanity itself, and 
 reflect much light upon the occult causes of human depreciation and suffering. 
 Among the earliest of his publications was a paper on Fracture of the Base of the 
 Skull, in the American Jotirnal of Medical Science for 1866. An essay on the 
 Use of Chloral Hydrate, appeared in the Tratisactions of the Connecticut Medical 
 Society in 1874. A critique on the Discovery of Modern Ancesthesia followed, in 
 the New York Medical Record of 1876. A paper from Professor Henry J. Bigelow, 
 M.D., of Harvard University on The Discovery of Modern Ancesthesia, in The 
 
iS8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 Journal of the Medical Sciences, claiming that honor for Dr. Morton, of Boston, called 
 forth a reply from Dr. Stearns. Pie vindicated the claim of Dr. Horace Wells, of 
 Hartford, to the discovery of anaesthesia, in opposition to that of Dr. Morton ; and 
 did it with the incontrovertible logic of authenticated facts. On the loth of Decem- 
 ber, 1844, Wells witnessed some experiments made with nitrous oxide, and saw one 
 person, while under its influence, bruise himself severely. The injured man, to 
 his own surprise, was unconscious of his hurt at the time. The fact, thus observed, 
 suggested to Wells the possibility of painless surgical operations while the patient was 
 under the influence of the same agent ; and led him to subject himself to experiment. 
 His friend Riff^s extracted one of his molar teeth, and he himself afterward ex- 
 traded teeth from the jaws of fifteen different persons, without pain to any of 
 them, except two, to whom he had not administered a sufficient quantity of the 
 anaesthetic. From Hartford Wells went to Boston, where his statements were re- 
 ceived with incredulity, and where his first experiment proved to be a partial failure, 
 because of the inadequate quantity of ether inhaled by the patient. Returning to 
 Hartford, he resumed the practice of dentistry, and employed his newly discovered 
 agent successfully in fully fifty cases during the two following years. Dr. Marcy, one 
 of the surgeons of the city, "after a conference with Wells in relation to the proper- 
 ties of sulphuric ether as compared with those of gas, used ether, and removed an 
 encysted tumor without pain, while Wells was present." Dr. Morton, a former pupil 
 of Wells, laid claim to the honor of the discovery, because he had succeeded with 
 ether in 1846. Stung by this treacherous ingratitude of the man to whom he had 
 revealed the steps to his discovery of gas and ether, Wells attempted to establish the 
 validity of his own pretensions, but unfortunately became insane and died. What he 
 could not do for himself Dr. Stearns has effected for him, with admirable skill and 
 convincing argument ; and for his services in this one particular is entitled to the 
 gratitude of all lovers of truth and righteousness. 
 
 On the 17th of February, 1876, Dr. Stearns delivered an address to the graduat- 
 ing class in the medical department of Yale College, which was afterward published 
 by the medical faculty. It I'eveals his intimate acquaintance with the history, theories, 
 and practice of medicine ; and illustrates his ability not only to describe them, but 
 also to promote the further triumphs of the science and art whose achievements 
 he so eloquently details. First of all, he calls attention to " the change in our ideas 
 in reference to the nature and causes of disease. Within the memory of man, it was 
 an accepted idea that disease was an entity, a something existing within the system 
 which it was necessary to expel before a condition of health could return." Now, 
 " so far from disease being an entity or a unity, we are taught that it is as diverse 
 and multifarious as we find morbid conditions, and much more so than nosological 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 159 
 
 tables indicate ; that it consists in the grand total of diseased states or disordered 
 actions to which the system is subject ; and in consequence, the prime object of the 
 physician should be to aid nature in restoring to normal activity functions abnor- 
 mally performed, and [to] renovate structures already changed." In doing this he 
 needs "to interrogate the history of parentage, and take into consideration the im- 
 mensely powerful factor of heredity." . . . 
 
 " Passing from the primary or antecedent causes or conditions of disease to the 
 proximate or exciting causes, we are no longer content to regard them as something 
 sent in punishment for sin (unless we regard sin as the moral violation of natural 
 law), or from some inscrutable source, and of a nature past finding out ; but, in the 
 case of many diseases we have learned to look for active, recognizable, and prevent- 
 able causes." " When we are called to treat the neuroses, our first step is an inquiry 
 into and removal of any existing causes ; we interrogate the habits of life, which 
 specially act upon the nervous system ; hours of business, amount of sleep, amount 
 of exercise out-of-doors, anxiety, reverses in fortune, overwork, habits of body, hours 
 of study in school-rooms and out of school-rooms, amount of mental labor imposed 
 on the brain, etc., etc." 
 
 Another point to which he calls attention is " the introduction of the micro- 
 scope into the field of medical research'.' " The power of the eye by this means 
 becomes increased almost indefinitely, and thus equipped, we may examine every 
 fibre and cell of. the various structures and organs of the system. We determine 
 the composition of the blood, relative to its white and red corpuscles, and the 
 different secretions as to whether they are normal or otherwise, and if changed, the 
 nature of such change in many cases ; whether it be chemical, or consists of for- 
 eign and abnormal substances or formations. We examine the nature and structure 
 of abnormal growths, determining the question of innocency by their divergence 
 from normal and healthy structure." "As an example in point, I may here refer 
 to diseases of the nervous centres, manifesting themselves in the form of insanity. 
 Fifty years ago this was supposed to be a disease of the mind, with little if any 
 special connection with the brain, or the manifestation of some spiritual possession. 
 No examination of the brain with the means then available had been sufficiently 
 delicate to detect the slightest alteration in its tissues, in cases where persons had 
 died insane ; and, though suspicions may have existed, as to morbid changes, they 
 could not be verified. 
 
 " Now, however, we are able to demonstrate by means of the microscope that 
 insanity is a disease of the brain, and attended by morbid changes in its structure 
 —as much as pneumonia or tuberculosis are diseases of the lungs, and attended 
 with morbid changes there. In cases of death from insanity, we can demonstrate. 
 
i6o BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 that either the cells, or blood-vessels, or connective fibres, are diseased, because 
 their normal structures are found to be changed. And, from this fact, we infer 
 with certainty that in non-fatal and curable cases, there exists a condition in which 
 the functions of the brain are imperfectly, or abnormally performed ; or, in other 
 words, functional disease exists, dependent on brain changes, just as we have func- 
 tional disease of the stomach or liver. 
 
 " Whether these functional diseases arise from some changes in the blood, which 
 affect the red corpuscles or the white corpuscles or the serum, or the relative pro- 
 portion of these, or all of these conditions ; or whether they may be due to as 
 yet inappreciable changes in the brain cells, impairing their power of secretion or 
 absorption, or to changes in these cells of diverse character, yet undetermined ; or, 
 yet again, to changes in the connective fibre, so that the cells receive false or 
 imperfect messages, it is not necessary for my present purpose to inquire. But 
 that there is, from some cause, or causes, such a change, that they are no longer 
 fully obedient to the Ego, which seeks to use them, resulting in some cases in 
 one form of insanity, and in others, in other forms, there can be no doubt. And 
 some pathologists think the time is not very far distant when they will be able 
 to point out the peculiar pathological changes which occur in the several forms of 
 insanity, as they now do in diseases of the lungs." 
 
 Passing to another point, intimately connected with and growing out of this 
 illustration. Dr. Stearns next referred to "our advance in the treatment of insanity 
 within the last fifty years." Here also he speaks with the authority of an experienced 
 and acknowledged expert. " I would not," he says, " and hardly could if I would, 
 exaggerate either the cruelties practised by society in general, toward those afflicted 
 with this most terrible of human maladies; or, the utter lack of appreciation by our 
 profession, of the true nature of the disease, before, and during the first quarter of 
 the present century. And this was true, not of any one country, but in all the 
 fairest and most highly civilized countries of Europe. The chronic insane, when 
 they were thought to be harmless, were permitted to wander about from village 
 to village, the objects of the hootings, mockery, and abuse of cruel boys and men. 
 When they became excited or dangerous, they were chained up like wild beasts 
 in barns, or sheds built for the purpose, or thrown into dungeons, where they were 
 scourged, or beaten, till the evil spirit should be subdued. There they were kept 
 month after month, neglected or forgotten, without sunlight, in the heats of summer 
 and the frosts of winter fed with the refuse of tables, if fed at all, till wasted to 
 skeletons, and not unfrequently starved to death." 
 
 After an exceedingly graphic and powerful description of the prisons erected 
 throughout Europe for the detention of the insane, and of the horrible treatment 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. i6i 
 
 therein meted out to them, Dr. Stearns proceeds to contrast the accommodations and 
 treatment now provided ; " so that countries of the whole civilized world seem to 
 be vieing with each other in the strife to make amends for past ignorance and 
 cruelties, and secure better things for the future. The old idea that insanity was 
 a disease of a spiritual nature has faded away, and now we investigate it as a 
 physical lesion ; we diagnose by study of symptoms and conditions its different 
 forms, and adapt our courses of treatment, as we do in diseases affecting other 
 organs or structures of the body. Nay, more ; by as much as insanity is a disease 
 most obscure in its beginnings, and difficult to be investigated, by so much are we 
 pushing researches, and putting forth efforts to unveil its mystery; and, by as much 
 as it is the most fearful of all forms of disease, by so much are we endeavoring to 
 alleviate its sufferings, and surround its unhappy victims with every restorative measure 
 likely to be of service. We build costly mansions surrounded with panoramic views, 
 of rivers, mountains, green fields, and leafy woods. Airing courts, filled with trees, 
 shrubs, and the fragrance of flowers, are open for their enjoyment at all hours of 
 the day. Rooms with the cleanest of walls and floors, and filled with the purest 
 air and sunshine, adorned with cheerful pictures, and supplied with every needed 
 comfort, and even luxury, have taken the place of dark, narrow, and lonely cells. 
 Kindness and sympathy have forever driven into darkness cruelty, chains, and scourg- 
 ings. We strive to allay fearful bodings and to alleviate suffering. We bring quiet 
 and sweet repose to the weary and exhausted brain, and by soothing care and gentle 
 steps, we try to lead back the mind disordered and wandering again to the bright 
 visions of reason." 
 
 We try to paint "that terrible spectacle — 
 
 ' The intellectual power, thro' words and things. 
 Went sounding on its dim and perilous way ' — 
 
 with another and a brighter color ; and, not unfrequently, when, to all human appear- 
 ance, the end seems to be drawing on, and the golden bowl to be breaking; when 
 the silver chord is fast being unloosed, and that ' ammula, blandula, vagula, hospes, 
 comesque' is ready to leave the body on its dark journey to an unknown land, 
 our art wins it back, and braids again the unravelling strands of the silver chord. 
 " More than fifty per cent of the acute cases of insanity admitted to our hospitals 
 now recover ; and I boldly declare without fear of challenge that if medical science 
 had achieved nothing else for humanity during the last fifty years, than to have 
 wrought such a change in our views and treatment of insanity — a change so great 
 that the disease is shorn of half its terrors — it would be entitled to honor and 
 gratitude, till that time comes when diseased brains and mental suffering shall no 
 
 more be known." 
 II 
 
i62 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 But medical science, he justly affirms, has accomplished far more than that. It 
 has decreased the general death-rate throughout Christendom ; it has warded off 
 those terrible epidemics of disease formerly known under the names of plague and 
 pestilence ; it has ascertained the natural history of cholera, and shorn it of much 
 of its dread power; it is successfully resisting the inroads of yellow fever, and 
 has added half a year or more to the average duration of human life. The 
 pecuniary value of the last achievement is one worthy of profound consideration. Po- 
 litical economists estimate the annual value of the products of each male laborer's toil 
 to be about five hundred dollars. Half this sum multiplied by fifty thousand — less 
 that half the number of adult male citizens in Connecticut — reaches the enormous 
 total of twelve millions and a half of dollars, added to the wealth of the state 
 by the skill of its physicians and surgeons. Multiply this sum again by eighty — 
 the number of times that the population of the United States exceeds that of 
 Connecticut — and the almost incredible sum of one thousand millions of dollars 
 presents itself as the amount of wealth saved to the country by medical science 
 in a single generation. And yet we stand " only on the border-land ; we are just 
 beginning how to learn ; we have but just entered the paths which will lead to 
 more brilliant discoveries and grander achievements in the future, so that we who 
 are older, almost envy you your youth, and the prizes awaiting you in the future." 
 Such an address is peculiarly stimulative of enthusiasm and application, and especially 
 when its auditors remember "that advancement in all departments of science 
 generally goes on by the grains contributed by the many;" that "the largest 
 prizes come only rarely ; that there has been but one Newton, one Franklin, one 
 Jenner, one Wells." 
 
 In 1876 Dr. Stearns also published a very valuable series of Stathtics of 
 Insanity Relative to Re-Admissions to the Retreat. From this it appears that '■ the 
 whole number of persons re-admitted is to the whole number who have been 
 admitted but once, as 834 is to 2856; that is, nearly three tenths (29 -f per cent) of 
 all persons who have been admitted to the Retreat have been admitted more than 
 once. It is certain that many of this number have also been treated ao-ain in other 
 hospitals, and consequently do not appear as cases of re-admissions to the Retreat- 
 " therefore it is reasonable to expect," he adds, " that from thirty to fifty per cent of 
 all persons who shall in future be received at the Retreat for the first time as 
 insane, and recover, will again apply for admission either here or at some other 
 hospital." These tabulated statistics show the number of re-admissions, the result of 
 previous admissions, the interval from discharges to re-admissions, the whole number 
 of admissions of 834 persons re-admitted, the recoveries of cases re-admitted, and the 
 deaths and the causes of death in re-admitted cases. They supply the matter for 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.^ D I A . 163 
 
 generalizations resting on indisputable facts, and in connection with others of like 
 character, must be of vast service to psychological physicians in the future. 
 
 Another pamphlet published by Dr. Stearns in iS 77 discusses the question — 
 "Are Boards of Lunacy Commissioners Expedient for American Asylums f It is 
 an extract from the fifty-third annual report of the Retreat for the Insane. While 
 conceding the excellence of the British system, under which men of eminent profes- 
 sional ability and attainments, of special knowledge in relation to psychology, of 
 recognized interest in the welfare of the insane, and with fitness for their special and 
 very delicate line of duty, are selected by the crown as such commissioners, he yet, 
 for reasons growing out of the political constitution of the United States, deems 
 the adoption of a similar plan to be altogether impracticable for this country, under 
 its present form of government. His conclusion is amply borne out by the 
 considerations adduced. 
 
 In the Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Officers of the Retreat for the Insane, 
 April, 1879, Dr. Stearns — who is alluded to in respectful and pleasing terms by the 
 Board of Medical Visitors — speaks of a visit to Europe made since his last annual 
 report, in which, while in Scotland, he " embraced the opportunity to observe such 
 changes as had occurred in a few of the institutions in that country, as well as the 
 tendency of opinion on the question of asylum management among such superin- 
 tendents" as he had the pleasure of meeting. This portion of his report M/as afterward 
 published separately under the title of Recent Tendencies in Scotch Asylums. He 
 sums up his observations " as to the tendency of change in buildings for the insane 
 during the past five years in Scotland," by stating " that in all the large metropolitan 
 institutions which provide for both pay and pauper patients, and which are situated 
 near large cities, the tendency has been decidedly toward an increase in number, 
 and improvement in the character of the accommodations, and that this has been 
 done at a large outlay of money." In point of architectural display, decoration, 
 beauty, and elegance of lawns and landscapes, the Scotch asylums surpass the Amer- 
 ican. In Capar he examined the detached cottage-building, occupied by such of the 
 convalescent as were designated by the Superintendent, and thought that in the 
 future " the tendency" in Scotland " will be strongly toward provision for all the 
 insane in institutions used exclusively for that purpose, and by those having special 
 qualifications for their care." 
 
 To the following points in Scotch management he paid special attention: i. 
 Occupation for patients. 2. Non-restraint (so-called). 3. Personal freedom. 4. Path- 
 ological investigations. These he criticised fairly, but found- little in them, if anything, 
 to modify his own practice. 
 
 Placed "above temptation to act except in such manner as in his judgment 
 
i64 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 will prove to be for the best good of those under his care," he " visits all parts of 
 the Retreat frequently, and sees all those cases daily, who, for any reason, may 
 appear to require his personal attention. Many of these visits are made when 
 unexpected by attendants and others. Requests and complaints can be made to him 
 with entire freedom." Dramatic and musical entertainments, scientific lectures, quadrille 
 parties, readings, private theatricals, exhibitions of pictures by the stereopticon, etc., 
 etc., are all utilized in his treatment of the insane patients under his care. 
 
 In 1879 Dr. Stearns reprinted, in pamphlet form, an admirable and thought- 
 provoking paper — first given to the public in the pages of Scribners Monthly — ori 
 The Relations of Insanity to Modern Civilization. In this he holds that "for prac- 
 tical purposes insanity may be considered as incident only to civilization," and that 
 we " have no accounts which lead us to suppose the disease ever existed to any 
 considerable extent either among the North American Indians, or the natives of the 
 Pacific isles." Statisticians prove that it is on the increase both in Great Britain 
 and in this country. Is it then an effect of which civilization is the cause? lie 
 believes not, and yet regards it as an incident of civilization. Among the social 
 conditions which produce it are a vicious, i7nperfect, and injudicious education. 
 People generally have not " the true idea of education," which " is the uniform 
 development of all the systems of the body together — a leading out, building up 
 and strengthening of these several parts for whatever calling or profession may be 
 chosen in life, in such a manner that the individual shall be qualified to adjust him- 
 self or herself to the general conditions and requirements of society, without friction 
 to self or others." 
 
 Other occasions of insanity are found in the increased facilities of gratifying 
 physical passions, and consequent excesses ; in the practices and daily habits of life ; 
 in too little sleep, and in the unequal distribution of the means of livino-. All these 
 facts account for the increasing multitudes who are pushed to the wall in the grand 
 struggle of life. "Christianity has taught us to pick them up, and try to nurse 
 them to strength for further battle. She has built hospitals, and these weaker ones 
 drift into these refuges from the storm. So it has been and so it will be in the 
 future." While "the educational and disciplinary processes involved in passing; to a 
 higher state of civilization tend in the main to strengthen the nervous system, ... 
 and to maintain a larger degree of mental health than would be possible without 
 them," yet these incidental conditions " do largely conspire to act as causes" of that 
 insanity in its multiform aspects of which he has made so close a study, and of 
 which he is confessedly an able and successful healer. 
 
 Among the more recent of Dr. Stearns' pamphlet productions is a thoroughly 
 digested and logically arranged "study" of Physiology vs. Philosophy, in which he 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 165 
 
 contrasts, to some extent, the views of physiology with those of philosophy ; intimat- 
 ing, also, so far as is necessary to his purpose, points of agreement between the two. 
 This brief, but masterly, attempt " to elucidate the still apparently unsettled problem of 
 life and mind in their relation to body" encourages the hope that it is but the pre- 
 decessor of a complete treatise on the subject, of which he is evidently a master — a 
 treatise that will assist to scientifically settle, so far as may be, the faith of its readers 
 on the old foundations, immovable hitherto by all assailants. 
 
 The Insane Diathesis, published in pamphlet form, and a paper relating to " the 
 Care of some classes of the Insane," are among the latest of Dr. Stearns' valuable 
 contributions to medical literature, in the department in which he has devoted 
 himself. 
 
 He has been for some years Lecturer on Insanity in Yale College. 
 
 ^ 
 
 URRILL, JAMES, Jr., of Providence, R. I., United States Senator from 
 Rhode Island. Mr. Burrill was of old English ancestry, and a member of 
 that American branch of the fami-ly whose representatives have distinguished 
 themselves in the public, professional, and business departments of American 
 life. His natural endowments were of solid and brilliant character. At the early 
 age of seventeen he graduated at Brown University, and at nineteen commenced 
 the practice of law in the courts of Rhode Island. His professional progress was 
 rapid beyond all precedent, and at twenty-five he was appointed Attorney-General of 
 the State. He held that office, by successive re-elections, until June, 1813, when 
 bodily infirmities, emanating from the disease which ultimately proved fatal, compelled 
 him to relinquish his office and also the practice of his profession. 
 
 In the same year his legislative career began by his election as representative of 
 his town to the October session of the General Assembly. Soon afterward he was 
 selected for the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives, and discharged 
 the responsible duties of that official until his appointment as Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Judicial Court. In February, 181 7, he was chosen to fill the post of 
 Senator from Rhode Island, in the Congress of the United States, and took his 
 seat in the Senate on the 4th of March following. The talents, fidelity, and in- 
 dustry illustrated by him in his new station soon acquired an influence in that 
 
i66 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 assembly which was no less honorable to himself than highly advantageous to the 
 interests of his native State. Consecutive sessions deepened the impressions at first 
 produced, and personal influence continued to augment to the very close of his 
 useful life. 
 
 Early, intense, and unremitting application to legal studies and practice allowed 
 no time for the acquisition of extensive and critical acquaintance with classical 
 literature. Eminence in his chosen profession demands not merely shining abilities, 
 but close and laborious preparation. Yet, in his intervals of leisure he did obtain 
 such a degree of familiarity with the immortal productions of ancient intellectual 
 genius as was quite sufficient for the ordinary necessities of a jurist and statesman. 
 11 is range of general information was wide. Valuable books on all matters of 
 interest and importance were read with avidity, and at the epoch of his retirement 
 from the bar, but few of his contemporaries were equal, and none superior to him- 
 self in the magnitude and precision of acquired popular knowledge. From that 
 time onward his reading was systematic, and its avails scientifically arranged. On 
 almost every subject of human inquiry his conversation was characterized by elegance, 
 fluency, and force. Facts and principles, once appropriated, were a permanent pos- 
 session. Memory was as tenacious as power of analysis was keen and persistent. 
 On political affairs he was an authority. Past and present events supplied him with 
 the materials of a system of political philosophy which not only cognizes facts, but 
 ascertains their moral causes, conditions, and effects — both obvious and probable. 
 Hence his conversations and addresses on these matters were invested with peculiar 
 instructiveness and worth. Nor was he less at home in the lighter and more piquant 
 departments of thought in which wit sparkles and innocent humor has free scope. 
 His repertory of anecdote was inexhaustible ; his ready and apposite selections there- 
 from judicious and telling. Blis oratory was not of florid description, but dealt rather 
 with authentic facts and scientific deductions. His judgment, in the citation of evi- 
 dence most pertinent to his purpose, was excellent. Inference was added to inference 
 — each one strengthening conviction in the minds of his auditory — until his eloquence 
 became irresistible. Simplicity was the most remarkable trait of his style. Pronuncia- 
 tion was distinct, periods harmonious, power of reasoning on his feet marvellous, and 
 outpourings of constant reflection remarkable. Popular assemblies were swayed by his 
 magnetism and mental force as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. 
 Moral worth was commensurate with intellectual grandeur, and endeared his memory 
 to all who knew him and could appreciate his services. The National Intelligencer, 
 of Washington, D. C, under date December 27th, 1821, announced his decease with 
 expressions of sincere regret. The pulmonary ailment from which he had suffered so 
 long had received a fresh access of violence, and, after a brief period, put an end to 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 167 
 
 his useful life at the comparatively early age of forty-nine. Unaffected grief over his 
 loss was manifest among the members of the National Legislature, and also among 
 the citizens of Rhode Island, whose interests he had so faithfully conserved. The 
 credit and usefulness with which he had exercised the legislative functions were 
 freely admitted by all. Able, benevolent, candid, liberal, his utterances were listened 
 to with profound respect, and unfailingly fell with fullest weight upon the minds and 
 hearts of his fellow Senators, as well as upon those of his constituents. Senator 
 Burrill's remains were conveyed to the Senate Chamber on the day of interment, 
 Divine worship offered, lessons of human duty enforced, and thence were carried to 
 the cemetery — six United States Senators acting as pall-bearers — there to rest until 
 the final audit, with its impartial and irreversible decisions. In the customary eulogies 
 which followed his removal, his memory received universal indorsement as that of 
 a most distinguished statesman, one of the brightest ornaments of the Rhode Island 
 bar, and of the social and literary institutions of the State ; and also as a son, father, 
 friend, and citizen, whose loss would be long and deeply deplored. 
 
 "»Wf'lK/ '"^ ITN E Y, ELI, of Whitneyville, New Haven, Inventor of the Cotton 
 ■^WTw/ 0\^. Born at Westborough, Worcester County, Mass., on the 8th of 
 Fpw December, 1765. His paternal ancestors emigrated from England with 
 
 ^ the early settlers of Massachusetts. Their descendants were among the 
 
 most respectable agriculturists of Worcester County. His maternal ancestors bore 
 the name of Fay, were English immigrants, and ranked with the substantial yeo- 
 manry of the colony. The first of them, connected with the New World, was 
 John Fay, who removed from Boston to Westborough, where he became the owner 
 of a large tract of land, since known as the Fay farm. 
 
 Very early in life, the characteristically strong emotions, tempered by prudence, 
 by which Mr. Whitney was distinguished, began to display themselves. Indications 
 of his rare mechanical genius appeared about the same time. He learned the use 
 of tools when very young, manufactured an excellent violin when about twelve 
 years of age, and executed repairs on similar instruments to the astonishment and 
 delight of his customers. One Sunday morning he feigned illness as an excuse for 
 not going to church, and, in the absence of his father, took that gentleman's watch 
 
]68 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 in pieces, and then put them together again with such singular skill that his inter- 
 ference with the instrument was never suspected. His father married a second time 
 when EH was thirteen years old. The step-mother brought with her a handsome 
 set of table-knives, as part of her furniture, and when one of them was broken, the 
 boy made another like it in every respect, except the stamp on the blade. When 
 fifteen or sixteen, during the Revolutionary War, he embarked in the manufacture 
 of nails, and continued the business with profit until the close of that period. Next, 
 he made long pins for fastening on ladies' bonnets, and then added the manufacture 
 of walking-canes. An uncommon fondness for figures, aptitude for arithmetical 
 calculations, and power of acquiring general information, caused all his acquaintances 
 to regard him as a very remarkable boy. At the age of nineteen he disclosed 
 strong desire for liberal education, but was thwarted by Mrs. Whitney. Four years 
 later, partly by the avails of manual labor, and partly by teaching a village school, 
 he succeeded in entering the Freshman class at Yale College, in May, 1789. An 
 intelligent friend of the family observed that " it was a pity such a fine me- 
 chanical genius as his should be wasted " in collegiate studies. The sequel proved 
 that by disiciplining his powers those very studies had helped to perfect them, and 
 to class their possessor with the most influential inventors of that or any other 
 century. His collegiate education was completed with little help from his father; 
 and what moneys the father did advance were afterward repaid with interest. 
 
 While a member of the college Mr. Whitney paid more attention to mathe- 
 matics, and especially to mechanics, theoretical and practical, than to classics. His 
 compositions were marked by vividness of imagination, and his disputations by sound 
 and correct reasoning. Political rather than literary subjects were discussed, and the 
 orators were wont to maintain, in the spirit of prophecy, that all arbitrary govern- 
 ments would be overthrown, and that the nascent republic would serve as a model 
 to all the nations of the earth. His mechanical propensities lost nothing of strength 
 or availability by his dialectic pursuits. One of the college tutors regretted that 
 he could not exhibit an interesting philosophical experiment because his apparatus 
 was out of order, and would have to be sent abroad for repairs. Mr. Whitney 
 proposed to undertake the necessary task, and performed it to the entire satisfaction of 
 the Faculty. He also borrowed some tools of a carpenter, and manipulated them 
 with such dexterity as to elicit the remark from the worthy artisan that " there 
 was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to colleo-e." 
 
 Graduating in 1792, in the autumn of that year, he engaged to enter the fam- 
 ily of Mr. B. of Georgia, as a private tutor. On his way thither he formed 
 the acquaintance of the widow of General Greene, who had been spendino- the 
 summer at the North, and was invited by that lady to her home at Mulberry 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 169 
 
 Grove, near Savannah. On his arrival there he found that Mr. B. had engaged 
 another teacher, and had thereby occasioned the first of a long series of disappoint- 
 ments that fell to the lot of the young scientist in Georgia. Mrs. Greene, with 
 genuine kindness, said to him : " My young friend, you propose studying the law. 
 Make my house your home, your room your castle, and there pursue what studies 
 you please." The gracious offer was gratefully accepted, and he commenced the 
 study of law under her hospitable ■ roof 
 
 Other fame than that of law courts awaited him — fame foreshadowed by the 
 reputation acquired from the manufacture of a tambour frame, on an entirely new 
 plan, for his good hostess, who thought it a wonderful proof of ingenuity. Not 
 long afterward. Majors Bremen, Forsyth, Pendleton, and other officers, who had 
 served under General Greene, were visiting his family, and " expressed great regret 
 that there was no means of cleaning the green seed cotton, or separating it from 
 its seed, since all the lands which were unsuitable for the cultivation of rice would 
 yield large crops of cotton. But until ingenuity could devise some machine which 
 would greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, it was in vain to think of raising 
 cotton for market. Separating one pound of the clean staple from the seed was a 
 day's work for a woman ; but the time usually devoted to picking cotton was the 
 evening, after the labor of the field was over. Then the slaves, men, women, and 
 children, were collected into circles, with one whose duty it was to rouse the dozing 
 and quicken the indolent." Olmsted^s Memoir of Whitney. 
 
 Mrs. Greene advised application to her young friend, who, she affirmed, could 
 make anything. The apphcation was made, but with no promise of special results ; 
 for he averred that he had never seen either cotton or cotton-seed in his life. There 
 the matter apparentl}' ended, but the direction had been imparted to Whitney's genius 
 that was to immortalize his name, and that was to influence the future of his country 
 with a passionate and teriible force beyond the range of wildest imaginings. 
 
 Mr. Whitney repaired to Savannah, searched the warehouses and boats until he 
 discovered a small parcel of cotton, with which he returned home, and on which he 
 purposed to experiment with a view to the solution of the problem so ardently 
 desiderated. Phineas Miller, a native of Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College, a 
 former private teacher in the family of General Greene, and subsequently the husband 
 of his widow, incited Whitney to persevere in the undertaking, and assigned him a 
 room in the basement of the mansion for a workshop. There, by the close of winter, 
 he had so far perfected his machine as to leave no doubt of its success, either in his 
 own mind or in the minds of Mr. Miller and Mrs. Greene, who were the only 
 persons he admitted to its presence. 
 
 Eager to communicate the tidings of his success to her friends, Mrs. Greene 
 
170 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 invited gentlemen from all parts of the State to her house, and on the first day 
 after they were assembled, conducted them to a temporary building, which had been 
 erected for the machine, where they saw, with astonishment and delight, that more 
 cotton could be separated from the seed in one day, by the labor of a single hand, 
 than could be done in the usual manner in the space of many months. Visions 
 of unbounded wealth and luxury floated before the eyes of the spectators. The 
 market was glutted with their agricultural products, and nothing could be found to 
 give employment to the negroes and support to the white inhabitants. But in the 
 machine befoi^e them lay the visible solution of all their difficulties. It would 
 certainly be the factor of enormous riches and political power. Whitney's friends 
 urged him to secure a patent at once. But he hesitated, in view of the great 
 expense attending the introduction of a new invention, of the difficulty incident to 
 the enforcement of a law in favor of the patentees, in opposition to the individual 
 interests of so large a number of persons as would be concerned in the culture of 
 cotton, and also because he was reluctant to abandon the profession of law for which 
 he was then preparing. But the zeal and hberality of Mr. Miller overcame all 
 scruples. He proposed to become joint adventurer with Mr. Whitney, ''and to be at 
 the whole expense of maturing the invention until it should be patented." If the machine 
 should succeed in its intended operation, the parties agreed, under legal formalities, "that 
 the profits and advantages arising therefrom, as well as all privileges and emoluments 
 to be derived from patenting, making, vending, and working the same, should be 
 mutually and equally shared between them." This instrument bears date May 27th, 
 1793, and immediately afterward they commenced business, under the firm of Miller 
 & Whitney. 
 
 Multitudes poured in from every part of the State to see the machine, and 
 when for prudential reasons they were denied admission to the building, broke it 
 open by night and carried off the machine. This flagrant violation of all justice 
 and equity was portentous of the injustice with which he was uniformly treated until 
 the expiry of his patent. Imitations of the machine, deviating in unimportant par- 
 ticulars from the original, were soon put upon the market, and went into successful 
 operation. All manner of shifts and evasions were employed to rob the inventor of 
 the fruits of his genius. Scarcely had he left Georgia for Connecticut, where he was, 
 as far as possible, to perfect the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and ship 
 to the former State such a number of machines as would supply the demand, before 
 his partner, Miller, began his long correspondence relative to the Cotton Gin. This 
 was not the title applied to the machine by the inventor, but the one bestowed by 
 the public. "I am informed," wrote Miller, three days after Whitney's departure, 
 " of two other claimants for the honor of the invention of cotton gins, in addition 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. \ii 
 
 to those we knew before." Their claims were wholly unfounded ; but in common 
 with people of their class, they were ready to dispute the honors of those who had 
 attained the goal toward which themselves were only blindly groping. 
 
 On the 2oth of June, 1793, Whitney presented his petition for a patent to 
 Thomas- Jefferson, then Secretary of State ; and as he could not, because of the 
 prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia, conclude the business relevant thereto, he 
 made oath to the invention before the Notary Public of the city of New Haven, on 
 the 28th of October, in the same year. Mr. Jefferson assured Whitney, by letter, that 
 a patent would be granted as soon as the model should be lodged in the Patent 
 Office. Miller proved to be too sanguine, and somewhat too grasping. Plis plan, in 
 which Whitney concurred, was to erect machines in every part of the cotton district, 
 and to engross the entire business themselves. Had they confined themselves to the 
 manufacture of the machines, and to the sale of patent rights, some of their troub- 
 lous complications might have been averted. But the prospect of suddenly making 
 an enormous fortune by the business of ginning, in which every third pound of 
 cotton — worth at that time from twenty-five to thirty-three cents — was too alluring 
 Miller was adventurous and imprudent, and accepted hazards that the cautious spirit 
 of Whitney wished to decline. Money was greatly needed, and was extremely scarce. 
 The rate of interest demanded was ruinous to the borrowers. The first loan con- 
 tracted by Whitney was regarded as peculiarly favorable, although he paid a 
 premium of five per cent, in addition to the lawful interest. Illness attacked him 
 in July, 1794, and a number of his workmen at New Haven were also stricken 
 down. The imperious demand for machines could not be supplied, and marauders 
 on their patent rights were becoming increasingly numerous and bold. The roller 
 gin was a formidable but unsuccessful competitor. The saw gin, which appeared 
 in 1795, was a more dangerous rival. "It was Whitney's gin, except that the teeth 
 were cut in circular rims of iron, instead of being made of wires, as was the case 
 in the earlier forms of the patent gin." To crown their misfortunes, Whitney's 
 shop at New Haven, together with all his machines and papers, was consumed by 
 fire in March, 1795. By this catastrophe he was reduced to absolute bankruptcy, 
 and saddled with debts to the amount of four thousand dollars. 
 
 The real greatness of the two friends became most apparent in the darkest hour 
 of calamity. Neither desponded, and both were roused to more vigorous efforts. " I 
 think with you," wrote Miller, "that we ought to meet such events with equanimity. 
 We have been pursuing a valuable object by honorable means ; and I trust that all 
 our measures have been such as reason and virtue must justify. ... It shall never 
 be said that we have lost an object which a little perseverance could have attained." 
 But, while they braced themselves to meet the storm, it burst upon them with still 
 
172 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C L O PyED I A . 
 
 more threatening fury. Intelligence was received that the English manufacturers 
 condemned the cotton cleaned by their machines, on the ground that the staple was 
 greatly injured. This was a very severe blow, and all things conspired to plunge 
 them into utter insoh^ency. 
 
 Through nearly the whole of 1796 Whitney purposed to sail for England, and 
 learn the real views of the manufacturers there, but was foiled by lack of the neces- 
 sary funds. On October 7th, 1797, he wrote: "It has required my utmost exertions 
 to exist, without making the least progress in our business. I have labored against 
 the strong current of disappointment, which has been threatening to carry us down 
 the cataract, but I have labored with a shattered oar and strugg'ed in vain, unless 
 some speedy relief is obtained." He wished to marry, but in the present distress did 
 not deem it admissible " even to think of family engagements." Miller would not 
 consent to his retaining a part of the loan obtained from Mr. John C. Nightingale, 
 who had married a daughter of Mrs. Miller, as his private property. The cloud 
 seemed to be without rift, or silver lining. But brighter prospects soon dawned. 
 Respectable manufacturers certified that the cotton cleaned by Whitney's gin was 
 preferred by their customers to any other in the market. 
 
 On the iith of May, 1797, Miller announced to Whitney the issue of the first 
 suit against infractors of their vested rights. It was unfavorable to the patentees. 
 No judge appeared at the session of the court in Savannah, May, 1798, when the 
 second suit was to be tried, and in April, 1799, Miller wrote that all prospect of 
 making anything by the gin in Georgia was at an end, because the jurymen had 
 agreed never to render a verdict in their favor : " let the merits of the case be 
 as they may." Few persons would buy their patent rights, and those who did gave 
 notes, which many of them refused to pay on maturity. The dishonesty and mean- 
 ness of the majority of Georgia planters were without parallel. South Carolina showed 
 a better spirit. Russell Goodrich, who was educated at Yale in the same class with 
 Mr. Miller, and who acted as agent of the firm in the South, wrote September 3d, 
 1 80 1, that the planters approved of the purchase of their patent right by the Legis- 
 lature ; and in December following," the sale was consummated. The price was 
 $50,000— twenty thousand to be paid in hand, and the remainder in three annual 
 payments of ten thousand dollars each. This was " but a song in comparison with 
 the worth of the thing," but it was securing something from the voracious jaws of 
 universal cupidity. In December, 1802, Whitney sold the patent right to the State 
 of North Carolina. The consideration was a tax of two shillings and sixpence 
 upon every saw employed in ginning cotton ; the tax to continue for five years, to 
 be collected by the sheriffs, minus the expenses of collection. Some of the gins 
 had forty saws each, and as the officials of North Carolina honorably fulfilled the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN CY C L O P.E D I A . 173 
 
 State obligation, the firm received a timely and welcome revenue. Tennessee also, 
 in 1803, laid a tax of thirty-seven and a half cents on every saw, for four years, for 
 their benefit. 
 
 Annoyance and trouble clung to every year's experience in connection with this 
 marvellous invention, which was destined to bring wealth and power to the South, 
 to rivet the chains more firmly on the limbs of the negroes, to enkindle civil war, 
 and in the outcome to liberate all persons of African blood from the miseries of 
 slavery, and to clothe them with the privileges and responsibilities of American 
 citizens. While Whitney was negotiating with North Carolina he received tidings 
 that South Carolina had annulled the contract made with the firm, suspended pay- 
 ment of the balance due, and instituted suit for the recovery of what had been 
 actually paid to them. States act on the theory that persons have no rights that 
 States are bound to respect. Their procedure toward creditors has in many instances 
 been shameless in the extreme ; and it is greatly to be desired that some consti- 
 tutional provision should be made whereby aggrieved individuals may obtain redress 
 for wrongs inflicted by States in their corporate capacity. The same reasons that 
 actuated South Carolina in this first act of repudiation, influenced Georgia to deny 
 any grant to Miller & Whitney. A clergyman. Rev. James Hutchinson by name, 
 declared that twelve months before their machine was brought under public notice, 
 one Edward Lyon had a similar one in miniature. Doctor Cortes Pedro Dampierre 
 had also informed them that a similar machine had been used in Switzerland, forty 
 years before, for picking rags to make lint and paper. These weighty reasons induced 
 Georgia to attempt confederation with South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennes- 
 see, for the purpose of abolishing the patentees' monopoly, and in case that under- 
 taking failed, of inducing Congress to compensate them for their discovery, and 
 thus to " release the Southern States from so burthensome a grievance" as that of 
 paying a contemptible pittance to the men whose genius and enterprise had enriched 
 the South almost beyond arithmetical calculation. North Carolina uprightly rejected 
 the overture, and many high-minded men in South Carolina indignantly spurned it, 
 but were overslaughed by the misguided majority of their fellow-citizens. Whitney 
 presented a manly and touching remonstrance to the Legislature of the latter com- 
 monwealth, in which he observed that "to have industriously, laboriously, and 
 exclusively devoted many years of the prime of his life to the invention and the 
 improvement of a machine, from which the citizens of South Carolina have already 
 realized immense profits — which is worth to them millions, and from their posterity, 
 to the latest generations, must continue to receive the most important benefits, and 
 in return to be treated as a felon, a swindler, and a villain, has stung him to the 
 very soul." 
 
174 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 To add to his burdens and perplexities, his partner, Mr. Miller, unexpectedly 
 died, on the 7th of December, 1803 — a sadly disappointed, but still a persistent and 
 heroic man. Whitney's strength increased with his difficulties. He was uncon- 
 querable. South Carolina made a favorable adjustment of her controversies with 
 him. North Carolina punctually paid the generous avails of his contracts with her, 
 and at length in the United States Court, held in Georgia, in December, 1807, he 
 obtained a most important decision in a suit brought against a trespasser, named 
 Fort. It was on that trial that Judge Johnson gave his celebrated decision in which 
 he recited the complainant's claims, the objections of the defendant, the utility of 
 the discovery, and the fallacy of all asserted justifications of infringement upon 
 Whitney's patent rights. His generous words of appreciation cannot be forgotten. 
 The cotton gin, he affirmed, had presented them with lucrative employment from 
 childhood to age. " Individuals who were depressed with poverty and sunk in idle- 
 ness have suddenly risen to wealth and respectability. Our debts have been paid off. 
 Our capitals have increased, and our lands trebled themselves in value. We cannot 
 express the weight of the obligation which the country owes to this invention. 
 The extent of it cannot now be seen." 
 
 Whether Arkvvright, Watt, Whitney, or Fulton did the most for mankind by 
 his inventions we do not care to. discuss. Each and all contributed to that amazing 
 development of commerce and manufactures in the United States to which the his- 
 tory of the world affords no parallel. In 1784, eight bags of cotton were seized on 
 board an American ship in Liverpool, by the Custom House officers, under the con- 
 viction that they could not be the growth of America. Contrast that with the facts 
 that in 1870 the cotton production of the United States reached 3,011,996 bales, each 
 bale containing 400 pounds, and aggregating the enormous number of 1,204,798,400 
 pounds; of which 349,314,502 pounds, manufactured into fabrics valued at 177,489,739 
 dollars, were consumed in this country, and some idea may be formed of American 
 and of world indebtedness to Eli Whitney. 
 
 The righteous decision of Judge Johnson did not terminate infringement and 
 litigation. The decisions were favorable to the inventor, and established the validity 
 of Lord Mansfield's words that "A patent must be for method, detached from all 
 physical existence whatever." Nothing could equal Whitney's coolness, firmness, 
 patience, and persistence under "new trials, fresh disappointments, and accumulated 
 wrongs," the very remembrance of which gave the headache to the Hon. S. M. Hop- 
 kins, after a lapse of thirty years. 
 
 Impressed by the uncertainty of all hopes founded on the cotton gin, Whitney, 
 in 1798, decided to seek competency in the manufacture of arms for the United 
 States, and through the influence of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 175 
 
 obtained a contract for ten thousand stand of arms, at the price of $134,000. The 
 undertaking was vast for one of his pecuniary resources, and indeed was never 
 fulfilled in accordance with the terms of agreement. Money was hard to obtain, 
 and skilled workmen were scarcer than money. But his energy surmounted all 
 obstacles. His works were erected at the foot of the celebrated and precipitous East 
 Rock, within two miles of New Haven, the requisite machinery constructed, raw 
 hands instructed, and in January, 1809, the cor.tract was finally completed. In 1812 
 he contracted with the United States to furnish an additional fifteen thousand stand 
 of arms, and in the mean time executed a similar engagement for the State of 
 New York. His system of manufacture was distinguished by division of labor, and 
 produced the ditferent parts of the sams arm in indefinite quantities, but with such 
 precision that they invariably fitted together with perfect nicety, and formed weapons , 
 inferior to none in use at that time, and indeed superior to all that could be pur- 
 chased in quantities. 
 
 In 1 81 2 he applied for a renewal of his patent on the cotton gin. "Estimating 
 the value of the labor of one man at twenty cents per day, the whole amount 
 which had been received by him for his invention was not equal to the value of 
 the labor saved in one hour by his machines then in use in the United States." 
 The annual emolument to the South was at least three millions of dollars, and 
 before his death became incomparably greater. Never was claim for extension of 
 patent more reasonable and just. Enlightened and liberal men from the cotton 
 districts favored his application. The majority, in the true spirit of slaveholders, 
 warmly opposed it, and his application was rejected by Congress. One memorable 
 illustration of his wondrous genius in connection with the cotton gin is worthy 
 of frequent relation. " In one of his trials Mr. Whitney adopted the following plan, 
 in order to show how nugatory were the methods of evasion practised by his 
 adversaries. They were endeavoring to have his claim to the invention set aside, on 
 the ground that the teeth in his machine wei^e made of wire inserted into the 
 cylinder of wood, while in the machine of Holmes, the teeth were ctU in plates, or 
 iron surrounding the cylinder, forming a circular saw. Mr. Whitney, by an ingenious 
 device (consisting chiefly of sinking the plate below the surface of the cylinder, and 
 suflfering the teeth to project), contrived to give to the saw teeth the appearance 
 of wires, while he prepared another cylinder in which the wire teeth were made to 
 look like saw teeth. The two cylinders were produced in court, and the witnesses 
 were called on to testify which was the invention of Whitney, and which that of 
 Holmes. They accordingly swore the saw teeth upon Whitney, and the wire teeth 
 upon Holmes, upon which the judge declared that it was unnecessary to proceed 
 any further, the principle of both being manifestly the samel' 
 
176 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO PJE D 1 A . 
 
 Inventing new kinds of machinery, and improving and perfecting old ones, Mr. 
 Whitney spent the following years, until January, 1817, w^hen he married Henrietta 
 F., youngest daughter of the Hon. Pierrepont Edwards, late Judge of the District 
 Court for the State of Connecticut. The marriage proved to be both happy and 
 fruitful. A son and three daughters were added to the family circle, and diffused joy 
 and pride through the hearts of the parents. Five years of almost cloudless sun- 
 shine came with them, and in turn were followed by excruciating sufferings from 
 physical disease, superinduced by fatigue and exposure in his repeated journeys to 
 the South. In September, 1822, his life was threatened by an enlargement of the 
 prostate gland, and for three weeks the paroxysms of pain endured were agonizing 
 beyond description. Partial relief was obtained, but in January, 1823, another attack 
 came on, and with alternations of awful suffering and partial repose, the time passed 
 until the 12th of November, 1824, at which time his sufferings became almost inces- 
 sant, until January 8th, 1825, when the indomitable, noble, and patriotic genius 
 entered into the spirit world. 
 
 New Haven poured out all its contents of respect and gratitude at his burial. 
 The Rev. President Day pronounced his eulogy, and stated that his language was: 
 " I am a sinner. But God is merciful. The only ground of acceptance before him 
 is through the great Mediator." Of more than ordinary stature, dignified in carriage, 
 manly and pleasant of countenance, conciliatory in manner, with high sense of honor, 
 possessed of strong feelings, capable of great coolness under provocation, and per- 
 sistent beyond competition, he was also remarkable for the singular balance and 
 symmetry of his endowments. His powers were under perfect control. Whatever he 
 undertook he finished, and finished it well-nigh unimprovably. It was a maxim with 
 him that there is nothing worth doing that is not worth doing well. In his last 
 illness he studied his own, and all related cases, with critical accuracy. Not until 
 he had hit upon the best conception of a thing, and of the best means of doing it, 
 did he disclose his plans to his friends. Mental discipline with him was complete. 
 " His views of men and things were on the most enlarged scale. The interests of 
 mankind, and especially of his native country, as connected with government, liberty, 
 order, science, arts, literature, morals, and religion, were familiar to his mind," and 
 were frequent topics of conversation. 
 
c>77^ ^^-'iH^'^^^;^^'^^-^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO TAL D I A. 177 
 
 pjREAT, AMOS SHERMAN, lawyer, of Bridgeport, Conn. Born in New 
 Milford, Litchfield Co., Conn., in that part of the town now called Bridge- 
 water, February 5th, 181 6. His father, Daniel Allen Treat, was a farmer, 
 and a native of the same town. Gideon Treat, his grandfather, was also a 
 armer, and a native of Milford, New Haven County. The father of Gideon was 
 Joseph Treat, 2d; his grandfather was Joseph Treat, ist, and his great-grandfather 
 was Robert Treat, the son of Richard Treat, v\'ho emigrated from England, after his 
 
 marriage to Joan or Joanna , became one of the first settlers in Wethersfield, 
 
 and died in 1669. 
 
 The family patronymic indicates descent from a sturdy Saxon source, and the 
 researches of genealogists discover the historical fact that its bearers were men of 
 high social consideration and political conspicuity. Richard Treat was one of the 
 patentees under the Royal Charter of April 23d, 1662 ; and Robert Treat, his son, 
 M^ho vras born in 1621 or 1622, and who settled at Milford in 1639, ^^^^ chosen 
 Governor of the colony in 1683. He died July 12th, 1710. The ancestral virtues 
 have been transmitted, with more or less prominence, and with unimpaired vitality, 
 through seven successive generations ; and — judging the future by the past — will be 
 bequeathed with augmented force and symmetry to the generations yet to come. 
 
 On the mother's side, Mr. Treat is descended from Samuel Sherman, one of the 
 first settlers of Connecticut, and the progenitor of men who have made their power 
 felt in the progress of the State, and of the nation. He emigrated to this country 
 in 1634, from Dedham, in the county of Essex, England, accompanied by his brother 
 John, and by a cousin bearing the same name as his brother — namely, John 
 Sherman. Samuel Sherman settled in Stratford, Conn., and there married Sarah 
 Mitchell, who crossed the ocean from England at the same time as himself. The 
 two John Shermans settled in Watertown, Mass. Mr. Treat is a descendant from 
 Samuel Sherman, of the seventh generation, and through the following ancestors : 
 I. Samuel Sherman ; 2. Benjamin ; 3. Job ; 4. Ephraim ; 5. Amos ; 6. Almira, daughter 
 of Amos, and the mother of five children, of whom Amos Sherman Treat is the third. 
 His early education was received in the public schools of his native village. 
 On the death of his father, which occurred when he was twelve years of age, he 
 was invited by his uncle to visit him at his home in Hudson, Ohio. The invitation 
 was accepted; and, while resident in that place, he prepared for matriculation at 
 Yale College, which he entered in 1834, and from which he graduated in 1838, with 
 the diploma of A.B. After his graduation he taught school in South Carolina, and 
 still later in Hackettstown, N. J., and at the same time prosecuted the study of law. 
 In 1840, he entered the law office of Calvin R. Butler, of Plymouth, Conn.; and, 
 on the completion of his preparatory training, was admitted to the bar in Litchfield 
 
17S BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 County, in the fall of 1843. Then, entering upon the practice of his profession at 
 Newtown, in the same county, he carried it on, independently, until 1854. During 
 this period, he filled, for two years, the office of Judge of Probate; and was also 
 beneficently identified with the school interests of the town, which he served as- one 
 of the School Committee, for several years. 
 
 On leaving Newtown, Judge Treat established himself at Bridgeport. His legal 
 reputation, at that epoch, stood so high that he was immediately appointed clerk 
 of the Supreme and Superior courts, by the judges of both benches. This position 
 he held for the space of five years, and also discharged the duties pertaining to a 
 growing and remunerative practice. He thoroughly illustrated that element of genius, 
 commonly called "hard work," and thereby laid in a large store of multifarious 
 knowledge which proved to be eminently advantageous in subsequent years. From 
 1857 to 1869 he was associated in legal partnership with Henry T. Blake, now 
 clerk of the courts ; after that with Israel M. Bullock ; next — following the decease 
 of that gentleman — with W. E. Norton, and then with Charles Sherwood, his present 
 professional associate. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Treat was identified with the Whig party, was an ardent supporter 
 of its principles, and took an active part in all its local procedures, until its dissolu- 
 tion. His natural bent, and the clearly defined opinions in the science of political 
 philosophy he had carefully elaborated, then led him into the ranks of Republicanism, 
 among whom he has been an ardent and efficient worker since their organization as a 
 distinct party. In 1857 he was nominated for the representation of Bridgeport in the 
 lower house of the State Legislature, but was defeated at the polls by his Democratic 
 competitor. The small majority of the latter — only nineteen votes — emboldened him 
 to accept a similar nomination in the ensuing year, and at the election following, 
 he found himself triumphant by a majority of about four hundred votes. In the 
 legislative session next succeeding, he rendered excellent service as a member of the 
 Judiciary Committee, and as chairman of the Committees on Contested Elections, 
 Incorporations, and Fisheries. 
 
 The legislative experience acquired by Mr. Treat in the councils of his own 
 State prepared him to act with discreet patriotism in the Conference Convention of 
 the States that had not passed ordinances of secession, held at Washington, in the 
 interests of national peace and unity, during the month of February, 1861. Twenty- 
 one States were ' represented in that convocation. Amos S. Treat, Robins Battell, 
 James T. Pratt, Charles J. McCurdy, Chauncey F. Cleveland, and Roger S. Baldwin, 
 were the delegates appointed by Governor Buckingham to represent the State of 
 Connecticut. The convention assembled at Willard's Concert Hall, Washington, 
 February 4th, in consequence of a preamble and resolutions adopted by the General 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 179 
 
 Assembly of Virginia, January 19th, 1861. The preamble recited the deliberate opin- 
 ion of that body " that unless the unhappy controversy" then dividing " the States 
 of this Confederacy, shall be satisfactorily adjusted, a permanent dissolution of the 
 Union is inevitable." Therefore, on behalf of the commonwealth of Virginia, an 
 invitation was extended to all such States, whether slaveholding or non-slaveholding, 
 as were willing to unite with her in an earnest effort to adjust all existing 
 differences, "in the spirit in which the Constitution was orginally framed, and con- 
 sistently with its principles, so as to afford to the people of the slaveholding States 
 adequate guarantees for the security of their rights." 
 
 Ex-President John Tyler, WiUiam C. Rives, John W. Brockenbrough, George 
 W. Summers, and James A. Seddon were the commissioners appointed by the 
 General Assembly of Virginia to the convention. The instructions under which they 
 were expected to act were virtually embodied in a resolution adopted at the same 
 time with the one investing them with delegated authority, and presents the de- 
 mands that Mr. Treat and his colleagues were called upon to consider. It reads 
 as follows : 
 
 " That in the opinion of the General Assembly of Virginia, the propositions 
 embraced in the resolutions presented to the Senate of the United States by the 
 Hon. John J. Crittenden, so modified as that the first article proposed as an amend- 
 ment to the Constitution of the United States shall apply to all the territory of 
 the United States now held or hereafter acquired south of latitude thirty-six degrees 
 and thirty minutes, and provide that slavery of the African race shall be effectually 
 protected as property therein during the continuance of the territorial government, 
 and the fourth article shall secure to the owners of slaves the right of transit with 
 their slaves between and through the non-slaveholding States and Territories, con- 
 stitute the basis of such an adjustment of the unhappy controversy which now 
 divides the States of this Confederacy, as would be accepted by the people of 
 this commonwealth." 
 
 The resolution itself is tinctured with the spirit of disunion and secession, 
 subsequently so markedly manifest in the amendments to the National Constitution 
 proposed by James A. Seddon of Virginia — one of which contains this significant 
 clause : " The connection of every State with the Union is recognized as depending 
 on the continuing assent of its people, and compulsion shall in no case, nor under 
 any form, be attempted by the Government of the Union against a State acting 
 in its collective or organic capacity." 
 
 The danjers threatening the life of the Republic were subtle, terrible, imminent.. 
 But Connecticut, in her representatives, was ready to grapple with them. Not 
 without reason had John Tyler, on taking his seat as president of the convention, 
 
iSo BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 rhetorically and eloquently said : " Connecticut is here ; and she comes, I doubt not, 
 in the spirit of Roger Sherman, whose name with our very children has become 
 a household word, and who was in life the embodiment of that sound practical 
 sense which befits the great law giver and constructor of governments." One in 
 whose veins ran the blood of the Shermans was there, to meet every overture 
 consistent with the fundamental principles of the American Republic, in the spirit 
 of just fraternity and perpetual nationality, and was no less worthily seconded by 
 his colleagues. Whatever any strict construction of the organic national law war- 
 ranted they were prepared to concede, but in deference to the eternal laws of the 
 Almighty were not willing to concede more. The convention came to a close, 
 but pacific measures of any kind, short of complete surrender to the slave power, 
 however worded, had no more effect than the pontifical bull against the comet. 
 The storm of war burst upon the land, and before its raging ceased, the accursed 
 institution of human slavery was washed away from its soil forever. 
 
 In 1862, Mr. Treat was again elected by the Republican party to the lower 
 house of the State Legislature, and served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
 a post which entitled him to the leadership of the House, and in which he did 
 much to give direction and form to important legislative action. During the same 
 session, on report of the Joint Standing Committee on Banks, he was appointed 
 State Director for the Bridgeport Bank. The finances of the country needed the 
 wisest, ablest, boldest talent, in order to give efficient support to the Government 
 in its life-and-death struggle with secession and slaver)''. That talent came to the 
 surface readily, both in bank parlors and in legislative halls, in which were many 
 busy actors who, with Mr. Treat, could honestly affirm at the close of each session : 
 " We shall retire from this hall with the proud consciousness that we have not 
 sought our own personal advantage or aggrandizement, but have sought to deserve 
 well of our fellow-citizens and of the Republic." His constituents evidently enter- 
 tained the same conviction, for they returned him to the same post in 1869. One 
 measure adopted by the Legislature of 1862 received the hearty approval and co- 
 operation of Mr. Treat. It was the act enabling citizen soldiers, then serving in 
 the field, to vote in the State elections. In this just provision, as in all other sal- 
 utary legislation in which the excellent and eminent War Governor of Connecticut 
 William A. Buckingham, was specially interested, the latter received ardent and judi- 
 cious assistance from the energetic and influential representative of Bridgeport. Free 
 institutions were honored by their advocacy, and the shaking pillars of the great 
 Republic strengthened by the sturdy support of their shoulders. 
 
 Throughout the sessions of 1871-2-3 Mr. Treat represented the town of Wood- 
 bridge — in which he then resided, and of which he received almost the entire vote, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. i8i 
 
 in the lower house of the Legislature, and in the session of 1872 was chosen Speaker 
 of the House. In the concluding proceedings Mr. English, of New Haven, pre- 
 sented the Speaker a costly gold watch and chain, with these remarks : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker : At the commencement of this session of the General Assembly, 
 and upon the organization of this House of Representatives, you were elected 
 Speaker, to preside over its deliberations. Many of us were strangers to each other 
 at that time ; but during the session, which has been one of unusual length, we 
 have had abundant opportunities to form more intimate acquaintances, which have 
 ripened into lasting friendships. The session is now about to be brought to a 
 close. Your fellow-members could not let the opportunity pass without giving ex- 
 pression to their feelings of regard for you, and in something more substantial than 
 mere words. They have caused to be procured this valuable watch and chain, and 
 requested me, on their behalf, to present it to you. Sir, please accept it, not as the 
 reward for any particular service that you may have performed, but as an evidence 
 of the high appreciation of the courteous, prompt, and impartial manner in which 
 you have discharged the trying and often difficult duties of Speaker. Sir, you are 
 about to retire from the position which you have filled with so much credit to 
 yourself and honor to the State, and retire to your family and home. You will 
 carry nothing but the best of wishes for your future happiness and prosperity. That 
 you may long live to enjoy those higher honors which I doubt not the people have 
 in reserve for you. And when with you the voyage of life shall have ended, you 
 may reach that haven at last, where the winds cease to blow, the waters are still, 
 and where you will find eternal rest." 
 
 The Speaker replied : 
 
 "Honored Sir, Gentlemen ok the House, Friends: I am indeed thrice 
 honored — in the munificent gift that lies before me ; in that those whose lightest 
 word of praise is priceless, are the givers ; and in that you, sir, who have so often 
 been called to fill places of honor and trust in the State and nation — who have 
 thrice in obedience to the suffrages of your fellow-citizens filled the office of Gov- 
 ernor of this State — have deemed it not unworthy of your high position to do me" 
 such honor in bestowing this princely offering. Our acquaintance and friendship 
 began years ago, when the strength of early manhood was upon us both — before the 
 snowflakes that never melt, the frosts that never dissolve, had fallen so gentl}'- and 
 yet so thickly upon our heads — and have continued to the present hour. With the 
 deepest emotions of gratitude and pride I accept your gift, and your kindness shall 
 remain the brightest spot on memory's page. It shall also bring unto 'you its own 
 ' exceeding great reward,' for a kindly act done warms the heart of him that con- 
 
i82 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^ D I A . 
 
 ceives it, gladdens and brightens the eye of him that looks upon it, and beautifies 
 the hand of him that performs it. Your words of approval have fallen most pleas- 
 antly upon my ear, even as the murmur of some silvery brook in a quiet summer 
 hour. May the future unto you be as pleasant and sunny as you have made this 
 hour unto me. I can wish you nothing brighter, nothing better that earth can 
 give ; and in that day when the destroying angel, standing one foot on the sea and 
 one foot on the shore, shall swear by Him that liveth and dieth not, that time shall 
 be no more, may you and I, sir, and each and all of us, having well spent the time 
 allotted us here on the earth, enter into the employments and into the enjoyments 
 of a nobler and better life, in that city which hath no need of the sun by day nor 
 of the moon by night, for the glory of the Lord is the light thereof." 
 
 Twice during the session of 1873 Mr. Treat was called upon to act as Speaker, 
 pro tempore, and when, at its close, the usual complimentary resolution — thanking the 
 Speaker, who at that epoch was William W. Eaton, for his impartiality and ability 
 as the presiding officer — was under discussion, he spoke as follows : 
 
 "Mr. Speaker: I rise to second the resolution of my excellent friend, the hon- 
 orable gentleman from Putnam. It has never been my good fortune to discharge a 
 more agreeable duty, to perform so pleasant a service, and one that accords so fully 
 with my best judgment, and with every feeling of my heart. The sentiments of that 
 resolution meet with my most cordial approval. I have known the Speaker of this 
 House for many years. Born in humble life, without the aid which wealth and 
 friends bring to struggling youth, he has, by the force of his own strong will, 
 attained a position of which any man might be proud. Eminently social in private 
 life, firm yet courteous in publi'c Hfe, eloquent in professional Hfe, he has ever been 
 true to his convictions, and has maintained and advocated his cherished principles 
 just as firmly and fearlessly when deserted as when surrounded by friends. I have 
 served with him before in assemblies like this. For the kind words he has spoken, 
 for the earnest wishes he has uttered, for the generous acts he has done, he has 
 my warmest thanks. I'or the unwavering confidence you have expressed toward 
 me, for the efforts you h^ve made in my behalf, you, sir, and you, gentlemen of 
 the House, each and all, will please accept my most profound, my most grateful 
 acknowledgments. Oh, sir, there are spots exceedingly bright along the weary waste 
 of life. 
 
 " We pause in our labors to-day to pay our tribute of respect to personal worth 
 and to official integrity. We gather and garner history for those who may come 
 after us. We add our mite to the treasury of the noble names and noble deeds 
 of those who have gone before us. The priceless wealth of a State is its honest 
 sons. Whose blood does not flow a liitle more freely in his veins as he fondly 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 183 
 
 recalls if he may, the honorahle names and honorable acts of those from whence 
 his blood came ? If there be one of you who does not, with a glow of satisfac- 
 tion, dwell upon the memory of his ancestors, then let him hasten to do something 
 of which his descendants may speak with honest pride. We are doing to-day as 
 our fathers have done before us. It is the same old story. We meet as strangers. 
 We mingle together for a few bright days. We form pleasant friendships. We clasp 
 the parting hand, we utter the old benediction, and we are gone. And yet it is 
 not an old story. There is that to which may come many days, but unto which 
 cometh old age never. Friendship, charity, and brotherly love are old as creation, 
 and yet new as the roses of the morning. The dew of Hermon has fallen upon the 
 mountain-side for almost sixty centuries, and yet in this morning's sun it sparkles as 
 brightly, it kisses as lovingly the drooping flower, as in the days of the poet-king 
 who immortalized its matchless beauty in matchless song." 
 
 Kindly, generous, and fluent in his oratory, Mr. Treat is always heard with recep- 
 tiveness and respect, and finds an entrance for his forcible logic by the amenities 
 of the manner in which it is presented. For many years he has officiated as a 
 member of the Republican State Committee, has been delegate to the Republican 
 State Conventions on numerous occasions, and in 1873 ^^^ strongly talked of by 
 his political associates as their candidate for the Governorship of the State — an 
 eventuality as yet by no means 'beyond the range of probabilities. In 1879 he was 
 once more elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives by his old constit- 
 uency at Bridgeport, to which city he had returned, and in which, as elsewhere, he 
 has been fully occupied with professional practice — practice in which he has been 
 remarkably successful. In this last period of legislative activity he acted as chair- 
 man of the Committee on Railroads. 
 
 In the public affairs of the city of Bridgeport Mr. Treat has always taken an 
 active and influential share, and for many years has been a director of the old 
 Bridgeport Bank, and of the Town Library. For twenty years he was a director 
 of the Bridgeport Gas Light Company, of whose capital stock he is a large owner, 
 and of which he has been the president since 1868. 
 
 On the 15th of December, 1869, Mr. Treat was married to. Mary A., only 
 daughter of Treat Clark, of Woodbridge, Conn. One daughter, Mary Clark, born 
 January 28th, 1872, is the issue of the union. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 ILBERT, WILLIAM L., of Winsted, Conn. Born in Litchfield, Litchfield 
 County, Conn., December 30th, 1806. His father, James Gilbert, was born 
 in the same State, in the town of Woodbridge. He was by occupation a 
 farmer, and died in Litchfield in the year 1840. His mother, Abigail Kin- 
 ney, was born in Washington, in the same county, and died in Winsted in the year 
 
 1873, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. 
 
 The first twenty-two years of his life he passed chiefly at home, employed during 
 the summer months in labor with his father on the farm, and in winter in such 
 district or academy schools as the country at that time furnished. 
 
 The domestic life of Mr. Gilbert may be briefly told. He was married in 
 the year 1835 to Clarinda K. Hine, of Washington, Conn., who died in the year 
 
 1874. The fruits of this marriage were three children, all of whom died previous 
 to i860. He was married to his present wife, Anna E. Westcott, of New London, 
 Conn., in the year 1876. As a citizen, although never a violent political partisan, 
 he has alwa3^s acted with the Republican party, and has been twice elected to 
 represent that party in the Legislature of the State, and was largely instrumental 
 during his first term of gaining from that body the charter of the Winsted Bank, 
 and in his second, that of the Connecticut Western Railroad. 
 
 But the sphere in which Mr. Gilbert is most widely known and rcsDccted, is as 
 a man of business. It may be instructive to notice those personal characteristics of 
 his to which he is indebted for eminent success. Endowed by nature with an excel- 
 lent constitution, capable of the most intense and protracted exertion, with good 
 habits and correct moral principles inculcated by his parents, Mr. Gilbert has brought 
 to the business of his life great concentration, an indomitable will, unwearied industry, 
 strict integrity, and good common-sense. To these qualities he owes his success, 
 rather than to exceptional advantages of birth, wealth, friends, or fickle fortune. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert commenced business soon after reaching his majority, without a dollar 
 which he could call his own, or a single relative or friend on whom he could call for 
 pecuniary aid. In the year 1828, at the age of twenty-two years, he formed a 
 partnership with his brother-in-law, George Marsh, for the manufacture of clocks. 
 His contribution to the capital invested in the firm was three hundred dollars 
 all of which was borrowed. With these small means the firm commenced busi- 
 ness in the town of Bristol, Conn. For the want of capital they be^an by 
 making only parts of clocks for the older firm of Jerome & Darrow. This 
 fraternal association continued three years, during which, by industry and economy 
 the means of these young men had been so far improved, and by close appli- 
 cation to business so much experience gained, that they thought themselves com- 
 petent to the manufacture of a whole clock. With these larger views the firrc 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 185 
 
 removed to the adjoining town of Farmington, where they became regular clock 
 manufacturers, and prosecuted the business successfully until the fall of 1835, when 
 Mr. Gilbert returned to Bristol and resumed the same business in a new firm, 
 composed of Birge, Gilbert & Co, This firm continued to prosper until 1839, 
 when he became a member of the firm of Jerome, Gilbert, Grant & Co. This 
 last was only a temporary arrangement, and in 1841 Mr. Gilbert removed to 
 Winsted, purchased a clock factory, and formed a partnership with Lucius Clark 
 and Ezra Baldwin. At the end of four years he bought out the interests of his 
 partners and conducted the business three years alone, when Clark repurchased an 
 interest, forming the firm of Gilbert & Clark, which continued three years. In 
 1851 Isaac B. Woodruff was admitted into the partnership, and has continued a 
 member of the firm until the present time. From the year 1857 to 1862 they 
 were associated in manufacturing clocks in Ansonia, Conn., in addition to the 
 business continued in Winsted. They were also extensively engaged in the manu- 
 facture of clock movements in the city of Williamsburg, N. Y., from 1863 to 1871. 
 
 In the year 1866 he organized a joint stock company, called the Gilbert Manu- 
 facturing Company, for the prosecution of the business in Winsted. The business of 
 Mr. Gilbert had now become large, increasing, and prosperous, and continued so 
 until 1871, at which date the factory buildings were consumed by fire. Mr. Gilbert 
 then obtained a special charter of the State for the manufacture of clocks, under 
 the name of Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Company. The factories were rebuilt on a 
 much larger scale, better adapted to their object, and containing all those improve- 
 ments suggested by long experience in the business. The buildings were of brick, 
 built in the most substantial manner, four stories high, and between three and four 
 hundred feet in length, furnished with the best machinery known, and accommo- 
 dating four hundred operatives. It is one of the largest and best factories for 
 the manufacture of clocks in the State. Mr. Gilbert has held the presidency of the 
 company from the beginning. It has had a continued prosperity, even through all 
 those financial revulsions preceding the year 1857, which, with a single exception, 
 proved fatal to every rival firm in the State. 
 
 Since he commenced the manufacture of clocks, the material of which they are 
 made has been changed from wood to brass ; the clock and the processes of its 
 manufacture have been simplified, the clock greatly improved, the cost of manufacture 
 reduced, and the article sold for one fourth of its former price. The varieties now 
 made are almost innumerable, and the clocks are sent to all quarters of the globe. 
 Mr. Gilbert has twice visited the other continent, in the interest of the business which 
 has thus been enlarged, and was one of the first to open a foreign market for Ameri- 
 can clocks. He has been engaged in a great number of other kinds of manufacturing 
 business in various places, most of which have proved successful. 
 
i86 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Gilbert formed a partnership with Henry Gay, late president of 
 the Winsted Bank, under the name of Gilbert & Gay, and immediately commenced 
 business in the building formerly occupied by the old bank. They carried on a 
 large and successful general banking business, gilso making loans on real estate in 
 the West to a very large extent. 
 
 They continued in that location until 1874, when Mr. Gilbert was elected 
 president, and Henry Gay cashier, of the Hurlbut National Bank. They then 
 stopped their general banking business, and removed their office to the Hurlbut 
 National Bank, where they still continue the business of loaning money at the 
 West. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Gilbert embarked in the banking business, came up the project 
 of building a railroad from Hartford west to the New York State line at Millerton — 
 an undertaking of no small magnitude. Mr. Gilbert entered into the work with his 
 accustomed energy and persistence, and to his ability and capital is due in great 
 measure the successful completion of the road, which, although not as yet a paying 
 investment, has been a great advantage to the towns in western Connecticut. 
 
 The earnest endeavor of Mr. Gilbert to promote every honorable enterprise has 
 always been marked and noted, and with his clear head and unwavering purpose, 
 together with his ample means, he has done his full share in building up the thriving 
 community in which he has so long resided. At seventy-four years of age, more 
 than half a century of which has been devoted to an intensely active business life, 
 Mr. Gilbert has survived most of his early competitors, and by his own unaided efforts 
 fairly earned a place among the foremost business men of the State. Unaided, he still 
 performs acceptably the duties of treasurer and director of the Connecticut Western 
 Railroad, president of the Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Company, and president of the 
 Hurlbut National Bank, in addition to the judicious care of his own large estate. 
 His constitution still unimpaired, vigorous health and full possession of all his mental 
 faculties encourage the hope that he may still enjoy many years of active, useful, 
 and beneficent life. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 187 
 
 [||REWSTER, LYMAN DENISON, of Danbury, Conn. Born in Salisbury, 
 "iiie^l'l Conn., July 31st, 1832. He is the son of Daniel and Harriet Averill 
 ^^P Brewster. His grandfather, Daniel Brewster, Sr., was born in 1730, at Preston, 
 ^' Conn., and was the great-grandson of Jonathan Brewster, eldest son of " Elder 
 William Brewster," the " Chief of the Pilgrims." 
 
 Few, indeed none, of his contemporary statesmen can boast a more distin- 
 guished and heroic ancestor. William Brewster was born of an ancient family, 
 educated at the University of Cambridge, acquainted with the splendid court of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and conversant with public affairs. He was the intimate and confidential 
 servant and friend of William Davison, the trusted secretary of the sovereign; and 
 when his patron was disgraced and wickedly imprisoned in the Tower of London, 
 Brewster " remained with him, rendering many faithful offices of service in the time 
 of his troubles." Two years after the fall of Davison, Brewster — who was then about 
 twenty-three years of age — ^went to reside with his father at the stately old manor- 
 house of Scrooby, near the northern boundary of Nottinghamshire. There he acted 
 for his infirm old father, who held an office in the service of the Queen. Five 
 years after that he was himself the postmaster at Scrooby, and lived " in good es- 
 teem among his friends and the gentlemen of those parts, especially the godly and 
 religious." He was an earnest, godly man, had accepted Puritan views at the uni- 
 versity, and did much for the promotion of religion in his own locality. He 
 was especially active in securing the services of good preachers, and earned the 
 praise that Paul gave to some of his converts, by giving beyond the measure of 
 his ability for their support. 
 
 In 1607 the people who were intent upon "the positive and practical part of 
 divine institutions" were organized into " two distinct bodies or churches," of which 
 one met in the house of William Brewster. Dr. Bacon, in his Genesis of the New 
 England Churches, p. 201, remarks, with a terseness and emphasis justified by the 
 subsequent events of history, "There was the germ of New England." There the 
 simple, heroic, God-fearing Puritans of North Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire 
 found it convenient to assemble ; and there Brewster, according to Bradford's testi- 
 mony, "with great love entertained them when they came, making provision for them 
 to his great charge," and " continued so to do whilst they could stay in England." 
 " It cannot be demonstrated," writes Dr. H. M. Dexter in his Congregationalism, as 
 Seen in Its Literature, p. 379; "but to my mind the probability is so great as almost 
 to amount to a certainty, that the original covenanting together of this second com- 
 pany—to be the Mayflower Church— was in this little chapel of the Archbishop of 
 York, some of the rudely carved oak beams of whose roof still humbly survive upon 
 the premises— thus again propounding Samson's riddle : ' Out of the eater came 
 meate, and out of the strong came sweetnesse.'" 
 
i86 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO PAL D I A . 
 
 When the church at Scrooby could no longer meet on the Lord's Day for 
 the worship of God, they solemnly resolved, as a church, to emigrate to Holland — 
 where there was " a church without a bishop, and a state without a king." Brew- 
 ster resigned his office, collected his chattels, bade farewell to Scrooby, and took 
 ship at Boston, with a large company of friends, to sail for Holland. But the 
 knavish, unprincipled shipmaster betrayed them to the persecuting civil authorities 
 They were arrested, imprisoned, and Brewster, with six others, was bound over for 
 trial and detained in prison, while the rest were discharged. How long they remained 
 in jail is not precisely ascertained. No sooner were they at liberty than a second 
 attempt was made to reach Holland, some six months afterward. This also failed. 
 But still they persevered, and one by one, or in families, they all got over the sea 
 into Holland, "and met together again with no small rejoicing." 
 
 From Amsterdam they removed to Leyden, and gained a competent livelihood 
 by means of hard and continual labor. " Brewster, the scholar and courtier, who had 
 formerly passed through the cities of Holland as an attache of the English embassy, 
 ' suffered much hardship after he had spent the most of his means, having a great 
 charge and many children.' " Yet he was always cheerful and contented. He taught 
 EngHsh to students in the university, " both Danes and Germans," for whom he 
 seems to have drawn up an English grammar in Latin. He also established a print- 
 ing office, where books were printed in Latin and in English. In Leyden, he acted 
 as one of the elders of the Church, which was organized with the most scrupulous 
 regard to the letter and spirit of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 In 1617 the Pilgrims discussed the project of removal to the New World, and 
 in 16 1 8 Brewster and Cushman secretly repaired to London to negotiate in behalf 
 of the Church with the Virginia Company. In 1619 it was decided that the pioneers 
 in the daring enterprise should be accompanied by ruling-elder Brewster, the pas- 
 tor's colleague in the oversight of the flock. On July 2 2d, 1620, the pioneer 
 Pilgrims embarked on board the Speedwell, at Delft-Haven, for Southampton, in their 
 native land ; whence they were to sail for America. The Speedwell was a minute 
 vessel of only sixty tons, and was designed to serve as a tender to the May- 
 flower, a ship of a hundred and eighty tons. On the 15th of August, 1620, the 
 two insignificant vessels sailed from Southampton with a hundred and twenty pas- 
 sengers, and all the material needful for founding a colony in the wilderness. It 
 was a "day of small things" for the Pilgrims. But in those small things were the 
 germs of mighty religious and political revolutions that were to change the face of 
 Christendom, and hasten the evangelization of the human race. 
 
 On board the Mayflower the Church worshipped under the presidency of its 
 teaching and ruling elder, William Brewster; and at Christmas landed on Plymouth 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P\V D I A . iSj 
 
 Rock — the American Mecca. In the privations, hardships, sicknesses, and deaths which 
 followed disembarkation, William Brewster proved himself to be a true follower of 
 the Lord who washed His disciples' feet. Gravest and stateliest of all his com- 
 pany. Elder Brewster was revered and loved by all who knew him. In 1623 he 
 was rejoined by two of his daughters, who had been left behind in Holland. For 
 nine years he was practically the pastor as well as the teacher of "the church in 
 the wilderness." When he died it was in green and flourishing age, full of honors, 
 and enriched by the reverence, love, and trust of multitudes in both hemispheres. 
 It is not too much to add that William Brewster's head and heart have impressed 
 their characteristics upon the American people as profoundly, perhaps, though not as 
 visibly, as those of George Washington. 
 
 It was with strictest propriety that the descendant of the old Cambridge Uni- 
 versity student was destined to receive a liberal education. Lyman D. Brewster was 
 fitted for college — chiefly at Williams Academy, in Stockbridge, Mass. In 185 1 he 
 entered the Freshman class at Yale, and graduated from that venerable institution 
 in 1855. He was the poet of his class. Subsequent to graduation, he studied law 
 under the direction of the Hon. Roger Averill, at Danbury, Conn., and was admitted 
 to the bar on the 21st of January, 1858. There he soon rose to the dignity and 
 influence of a leading member, and became the first Judge of the Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas in Fairfield County — holding the office with credit and distinction from 
 1870 to 1874 He has also interested himself in all public matters germane to 
 the best interests of his neighborhood. He has served as Judge of Probate, School 
 Visitor of Danbury for sixteen years, and also as one of the directors of the 
 Danbury Savings Bank, 
 
 In 1870, and again in 1878 and 1879, J"dge Brewster was elected to the 
 lower house of the Connecticut Legislature. In 1878, he was an influential member 
 of the Judiciary Committee, on which he served with Governor Andrews ; and in 
 1879 was on the same committee in company with the Hon. Henry C. Robinson 
 of Hartford. During the session of 1878 he was chairman on the part of the 
 House of the Committee on State Expenditures, and also of the Committee 
 on Constitutional Amendments. He also effectively advocated various important 
 measures, including the repeal of the "omnibus" clause in the Divorce law. In 
 the same year he was appointed by Governor Hubbard a member of the com- 
 mission for revising the Civil Procedure Code. W^hen the report of the commis- 
 sion was presented in the session of 1879, Mr. Brewster bore an active part in 
 the two-days' debate which ended in its adoption; and also in the subsequent work 
 of the commission in preparing new forms and rules of practice under it. He 
 also, at the opening of the session, secured the adoption of a new joint rule, making 
 
igo BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 the Committee on Engrossed Bills a Committee of Correction, to correct all mis- 
 takes and report back to the House all defective bills. The object of the Com- 
 mittee on Corrections is to prevent imperfect acts from becoming laws, until they 
 have been carefully revised and considered by it. The work itself is of cardinal 
 importance to careful legislation. 
 
 This is not the only beneficent legislative measure for which the people of 
 Connecticut are indebted to Judge Brewster. In the House journal of 1870 appears 
 the record of billls introduced by him for the economy and protection of labor. 
 One of these, No. 23, provides that "every railroad company shall require sufficient 
 security from the contractors for the payment of all labor performed in the con- 
 struction of said road ; and such company shall be liable to the laborer for labor 
 actually performed on the road." This clause became a law. An act for the 
 protection of labor. No. 88, providing that preferred debts due from insolvent estates 
 for labor and services performed, be allowed to the amount of fifty dollars, instead 
 of twenty-five as now provided, also became a law. Twelve bills which passed into 
 law, introduced by him in 1878, greatly reduced the expenses of the State. In 
 November, 1879, Ji^dge Brewster was elected by the Republican party to the State 
 Senate from the Eleventh District, by a majority of 315. His victory was all the 
 more flattering because the district had been carried by the Democrats since 1865; 
 and further, because the hatters, who constitute a considerable fraction of the voters 
 in Danbury, voted largely for him, without reference to party, in view of his advo- 
 cacy, in the previous session of the Legislature, of a State commission to examine 
 into the feasibility of regulating prison labor, so that it shall not injuriously affect 
 outside laborers. In the session of 1880, he again served on the Judiciary Com- 
 mittee, but in the capacity of chairman. Hitherto, on common testimony. Senator 
 Brewster has maintained a character for purity, public spirit, ability, and useful service 
 in strict harmony with the reputation of that heroic and godly Pilgrim leader whose 
 memory cannot die, and whose fame will be greener and more luxuriant as the 
 centuries roll onward into eternity. He is yet in his early prime, and the best 
 fruics are borne in the golden autumn. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA . 191 
 
 ^.■ACON, FRANCIS, M.D, of New Haven. Born in New Haven, October 
 
 4l^L 6th, 1832. His father, Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., is a divine of the highest 
 
 reputation, at home and abroad, as a philosophic theologian and masterly 
 
 r) preacher. His mother, nee Lucy Johnson, is the daughter of a gentleman 
 of that name resident in Johnstown, New York. His early literary education was 
 received in select schools at New Haven, and was followed by a course of study at 
 home, under a private tutor. Thence he was sent to the Phillips Academy, at 
 Andover, Mass. 
 
 Electing the profession of medicine, he entered the office of the celebrated Dr. 
 Ives at New Haven, and in due course matriculated at the Medical Department of 
 Yale University in 1849, ft'om which he graduated as M.D. in 1853. Active medical 
 practice began in the city of Galveston, Texas, where lie remained about five years. 
 In the civil v/ar, which broke out after his return from the South, and whose advent 
 he had foreseen for some years, he promptly and patriotically arrayed himself on the 
 side of constitutional law and order. In April, 1861, he entered the military service 
 of the United States, in his native town, as Assistant-surgeon of the Second Con- 
 necticut Volunteers, which was a three months' regiment, and which took part in 
 the first disastrous engagement at Bull Run. Dr. Bacon was present with his 
 command on that occasion. After the expiry of its term of enhstment, he was 
 commissioned as Surgeon of the Seventh Connecticut Volunteers, and held that 
 position until July, 1862, doing field duty most of the time, and being present with 
 his reo-iment at its debarkation on Hilton Head, where it was the first to land 
 on the hostile shore, and the first to wave the flag of Connecticut — after the Stars 
 and Stripes — " above the traitorous soil of South Carolina." He was also on duty 
 with his regiment on Tybce Island, at the siege and capture of Fort Pulaski, 
 Georgia In July, 1872, he was commissioned Surgeon of United States Volunteers, 
 with the rank of major, and became Surgeon-in-chief of General Silas Case's 
 brigade. He remained on duty in that position at Washington, D. C, until May, 
 1863, when he was transferred to New Orleaas, in which city he organized the St. 
 Louis General Hospital, of which he remained in charge about a year. During 
 part of his period of service at New Orleans, Dr. Bacon filled the office of Medical 
 Inspector of the Department of the Gulf in most acceptable and efficient manner, 
 and was also for some time the acting medical director. 
 
 In August, 1864, he resigned his position in the United States Army, in order 
 to accept the office of Professor of Surgery in the School of Medicine connected 
 with Yale College; which office he retained until June, 1877. Simultaneously with 
 the assumption of professional functions, he commenced the practice of medicine in 
 New Haven, and has since pursued it with marked ability and success. His specialty 
 
192 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA , 
 
 is that of surgery, in which his operations have gained such fame for skilfulness that 
 his services are frequently called into requisition in different sections of the State. 
 He is an occasional contributor to the medical journals, and addicts himself mainly 
 to surgical topics. He is a director of the Connecticut State Hospital, and also a 
 surgeon of that institution. Of the New Haven and Connecticut State Medical 
 societies he is a member, and also a permanent member of the American Medical 
 Association. 
 
 Dr. Bacon was married in the year 1866 to Miss G. M. Woolsey, daughter of 
 the late Charles W. Woolsey, of New York, 
 
 'jqOOMIS, FRANCIS B., of New London, Conn., ex-Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Connecticut. Born at Lyme, April 9th, 18 16. Joel Loomis, his father, was 
 an influential public man, a frequent representative of his town in the 
 General Assembly, Judge of Probate for many years, for a brief period an 
 Associate Judge of the County Court, and the intimate friend of the late Chief 
 Justice Waite, of Connecticut, whose son occupies the exalted position of Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. His mother was Alice Chapell, 
 of New London. 
 
 In early youth Mr. Loomis improved the opportunity of acquiring an educa- 
 tion, afforded by five years' tuition in a private school', where those branches of 
 knowledge that were most likely to be of service to him in a business career were 
 judiciously and diligently taught. Thus prepared for the active duties of life, on at- 
 taining his majority, he immediately began the manufacture of woollen goods in his 
 nativ» town, and that with a vigor and wisdom that were rewarded bv success 
 from the very beginning. In 1847, the year before his removal to New London, 
 Mr. Loomis was honored by an almost unanimous election to the lower branch of 
 the Legislature. 
 
 Removing to New London in 1848, Mr. Loomis enlarged his sphere of opera- 
 tion, and has since been prominently identified with the business and financial inter- 
 
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 193 
 
 ests of that city. Subsequent to his leaving Lyme he erected the woollen mills at 
 Montville, and afterward became the owner of the Rockwell Mills at Norwich, and 
 other factories in that town, now controlled by the firm of Sturtevant Brothers. He 
 also constructed and managed for some time the steam woollen mill at New Lon- 
 don, which factory was the first ever built in the city for the production of textile 
 fabrics, and of which he was the sole owner. The woollen mill at Coventry, Tolland 
 County, was yet another, and the last of his creations in that special department of 
 mdustrial art. In the marvellous development— of the woollen manufacture during 
 the three decades between 1840 and 1870, Mr. Loomis has been one of the prin- 
 cipal factors. In 1840 the United States census returned the amount of capital 
 invested in that^ business as in excess of $15,000,000, employing 21,000 persons, 
 and producing goods to the value of $20,696,000. In 1870 the census returned the 
 number of woollen manufacturing establishments as 2891 ; of hands employed, 93,108 ; 
 of capital invested, $108,998,000; and the value of the annual product at $177,963,000 
 — figures which reveal an amazing increase in the accumulated values and industrial 
 resources of the nation. 
 
 Not content with these manifold enterprises, he next acquired the exclusive title 
 to the large steam cotton mills at Sag Harbor, N. Y. In the administration of 
 all these undertakings Mr. Loomis was alone, and unassisted by any partner. During 
 the civil war, his manufacturing was conducted on a more extensive scale than 
 that of any other individual in the State. His employes rose to the number of over 
 one thousand, and his numerous establishments were running night and day in the 
 fulfilment of Government contracts. Unusual executive ability, such as that which is 
 needed in the wise and thorough manipulation of a regiment in the field, is requisite 
 to the successful conducting of so large a business. Some scores of West Point 
 graduates, on retiring to civil life, have become manufacturers, and in peaceful pursuits 
 have brought all their trained and quick-witted energies into masterly exercise. Mr. 
 Loomis himself, in earlier life, displayed a natural relish for military affairs, and at 
 the age of twenty-one was honored by election to the colonelcy of the Third Regi- 
 ment of Connecticut militia. As a financier his abilities are no less conspicuous 
 than as a manufacturer. Quick to perceive proffered advantages, and active in turn- 
 ing them to private and public account, he availed himself of the privileges con. 
 ferred by the National Banking Act, soon after it was passed, and organized the 
 First National Bank of New London, which was one of the first of its class, either 
 in the State or in the country. He subscribed and owned nearly the whole of the 
 capital stock, and directed its operations in person from the date of organization 
 until its cessation from business in 1877. Investment rarely proved to be more 
 lucrative than did that. Dividends for many years averaged twdve per cent in go)d, 
 13 
 
194 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 and the surplus accumulations more than equalled the capital. Throughout the 
 rebellion against the United States, that bank was the Government depository for 
 Eastern Connecticut, and for a long time held average Government deposits of over 
 $4,000,000. It was also intrusted with the sale of Government bonds, and floated 
 over $20,oco,ooo of the several issues. Possessed of an ample fortune, obtained by- 
 processes only beneficent to multitudes. Colonel Loomis retired from manufacturing 
 business soon after the close of the war, and employed his energy and resources in 
 stock speculations and railroad enterprises. Some of the former have been of colossal 
 magnitude. The latter, particularly in the South and West, have been on a large 
 scale, have tended to develop the capabilities of those sections of the land, and thus 
 to enrich the inhabitants, while they have yielded rich pecunial^y harvests to the 
 daring cultivator. 
 
 Politically, Colonel Loomis began public life as a Whig, and acted in concert 
 with that party until it ceased to exist. When rebellion broke out, he patriotically 
 devoted himself to the sustentation of the national cause, and lost neither heart nor 
 hope in the darkest and dreariest hours of the sanguinary struggle that ensued. 
 The grit and tenacity of the old CromwelHans were manifest in his presidency of 
 the war meeting held in the old court-house at New London, on the evening of the 
 day when traitorous hands fired on the national flag at Fort Sumter. His liberality 
 was equally apparent in his contribution to the fund for raising the first company 
 of volunteers sent from that city. The spirit and genius of the Revolutionary 
 fathers never shone more resplendently than in the offer of Colonel Loomis in 1864, 
 just before the carnage and horror of the Wilderness, to furnish and equip at his 
 own expense one thousand men for one hundred days, in order to relieve the gar- 
 rison at Fort Trumbull, that the regulars stationed there might be sent to the front. 
 The noble offer was not accepted, but the genuine and glowing patriotism which 
 dictated it, at the supreme hour of the conflict, received appropriate acknowledg- 
 ment from the President, in the following autograph letter, printed in Raymond's 
 Life, Public Services, and State Papers of 'Abraham Lincoln, and justly claiming in- 
 sertion here : 
 
 "Executive Mansion, Washington, May 12, 1864. 
 " My Dear Sir : 
 
 " I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 
 
 28th April, in which you offer to replace the piesent garrison at Fort Trumbull 
 
 with volunteers, which you propose to raise at your own expense. While it seems 
 
 inexpedient at this time to accept this proposition, on account of the special 
 
 duties devolving upon the garrison mentioned, I cannot pass unnoticed such a 
 
 meritorious instance of individual patriotism. Permit me, for the Government to 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 T9S 
 
 express my cordial thanks to you for this generous and public-spirited offer, which 
 
 is worthy of note among the many called forth in these times of national trial. 
 
 " I am, very truly, your obedient servant, 
 
 "A. Lincoln. 
 "F. B. LooMis, Esq." 
 
 Throughout the war, and until 1872, Colonel Loomis acted in harmony with 
 the Republican party, but uniformly declined all overtures to become a candidate 
 for office. The Liberal Republican movement of that year enlisted his heartiest 
 sympathy and co-operation, and he was nominated elector at large on the Greeley 
 and Brown ticket. Since then he has been politically identified with the Democ- 
 racy. In 1872 he declined the unanimous nomination as candidate for Senator 
 from the Seventh District, and shortly after the Congressional nomination of the 
 Third Congressional District was also unanimously tendered, but he refused to accept. 
 Of the St. Louis National Democratic Convention, which nominated Tildcn and 
 Hendricks for the chief offices in the gift of the -American people, he was a 
 delegate at large from his own State, and was elected chairman of the State dele- 
 gation. He was also made a Presidential elector at large on the Tilden and Hen- 
 dricks ticket from his State. In November, 1876, he was elected to the office 
 of Lieutenant-Governor on the Democratic ticket, and as presiding officer of the 
 Senate, in the subsequent legislative session, discharged his duties with acceptability 
 and skill, added to an impartial dignity that commanded the respectful attention and 
 grateful applause of political friends and opponents alike. At the close of the session, 
 the first ever held in the new State House, the Hon. Senator Brown of the Eighth 
 District, in delivering the farewell of the Senate to its presiding officer, spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 "Mr. President: I take great pleasure in presenting to you the resolution 
 which has been unanimously adopted by this Senate in your absence. It is the 
 spontaneous outburst from the heart of every member of this Senate. 
 
 " Further, Mr. President, it is with hesitation and doubt that I have consented, 
 at the request of my brother Senators, to express in some inefficient degree the 
 feelings which animate us in the closing hours of the session. I may well say, it 
 would have accorded better with my own feelings if it had fallen to some Senator 
 who could better express the sentiments of all of us upon such an occasion as this. 
 
 " By the progress of time, which in its rapid pace delays for nothing human, 
 we are brought to the closing hours of this session — a session which will be notable 
 in the history of this commonwealth as the last session held in the old and time- 
 honored capitol of the State. The distinction has fallen to you, sir, to preside over 
 our deliberations ; and while you were placed in the position which you have so well 
 
196 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 graced, by the action of a party, you have forgotten that you were a partisan, and 
 have conducted yourself as a statesman. As a member of the opposite party, and 
 speaking for the members of that party as well as for the whole Senate, I may say 
 that no act of yours has been such that it could not be commended and approved 
 by all. 
 
 " In your official position, on every occasion, you have treated all questions fairly 
 and honorably, and in a manner to command the respect and approval of all. 
 Strange as it may seem, yet it is true, that during the two years you have presided 
 over this body, no appeal has been made from the rulings of the Chair. 
 
 " In all personal relations, coming together strangers to each other as it were, we 
 have come to love and esteem you, and no member of this Senate will sever the rela- 
 tions which have bound us together without feelings of pain and regret at the parting, 
 which will extend far into the future ; but that pain will be softened by a pleasure 
 in the new friendships which have been the growth and product of this session, 
 which we seriously hope will only terminate with life. It brings feelings of sadness 
 as we review the history of the session, to think of parting; but we must not let 
 its sadness oppress us. We must remember that life is like a picture : it has its 
 sunshine and its shadow. Let us not forget that we have for weeks walked together 
 with you in sunshine ; in this parting hour we stand within the shadow. But as 
 we part, whether in sunshine or in shadow, may God be with us all." 
 
 The Senator then, on behalf of the Senate, presented Lieutenant-Governor 
 Loomis with a large photograph of the old State House, with the pictures of the 
 twenty-one Senators grouped around it, as a testimonial of friendship and esteem. 
 
 Mr. Loomis was urgently requested to become a candidate for the lieutenant- 
 governorship for a second term, and although positively declining the honor, he was 
 chosen by acclamation in the convention, but he refused to stand as the candidate. 
 
 In the fall of 1880 he was a prominent candidate for gubernatorial honors, and 
 it was the belief of all the leading men in the party that his nomination would 
 insure success to the Democratic ticket. His peculiar fitness for the position, in 
 connection with his popularity among the masses, were some of the reasons why 
 Mr. Loomis should have been the candidate of his party in the earnest and critical 
 campaign of 1880. Whatever may have been his personal wishes in the matter, he 
 after mature consideration prepared the following letter, which speaks for itself: 
 
 "New London, August 17th, 1880. 
 "Alexander Troup, Editor New Haven Union: 
 
 "My Dear Sir: Your valued paper has made such frequent mention of my 
 name in connection with the Democratic nomination for Governor that I now ask 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 197 
 
 the use of its columns to announce that, after a careful consideration of all the 
 circumstances, I have decided to withdraw as a candidate for any position before the 
 convention to-morrow. 
 
 " I am deeply sensible of the kindness and partiality which has induced leading 
 organs of Democratic opinion, and hosts of friends in all parts of the State, 
 both openly and privately to advocate my nomination. I am not unmindful of their 
 wishes, nor insensible to the distinguished honor at such a time as this of leading 
 the Democratic party to victory. But I am unwilling that any action 'of mine should 
 produce embarrassment to the convention, or that the introduction of my name there 
 should contribute, even in the slightest degree, to divided counsels. 
 
 "We are entering upon a campaign the importance of which, to the country 
 and the Democratic party, can hardly be overestimated. Peace, harmony, fraternal 
 good-will; the burial forever of the passions and resentments of civil war; the preser- 
 vation of the rights of the States, and of the proper powers by the Federal Govern- 
 ment ; the maintenance of the Constitution in the spirit of the men who made it ; 
 the prosperity and happiness of all in all parts of the land — these depend upon the 
 success of the Democratic party and the election of its noble candidate. To this 
 great end all private ambition should be sacrificed and all personal self-seeking and 
 local claims subordinated. 
 
 "In this great contest Connecticut is claimed as a doubtful State. She is certainly 
 a pivotal State; and with harmonious counsels and wise nominations she is certainly 
 Democratic. I hold it to be the duty of every Democrat to contribute to such a 
 result by every means in his power and by any sacrifice at his command. In view of 
 the consequences at stake, all differences should be adjusted, all jealousies put aside, 
 all claims and preferences surrendered, and the convention be left at liberty to select 
 such a candidate as will not only unite the great Democratic party, but also draw 
 to its support that great body of conservative voters who are opposed to sectionalism 
 and misrule. 
 
 " I have no doubt that the convention will, by the exercise of wisdom and 
 harmony, come to such a result, and that its proceedings will place Connecticut in 
 the list of that great majority of the States which are certain for Hancock and 
 English. 
 
 " I am, with great respect, yours truly, 
 
 " Francis B. Loomis." 
 
 Thus we find one putting aside self that he might perhaps the better secure the 
 success of his party, and one whom in honoring, the people would have honored 
 themselves. 
 
158 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P^D I A. 
 
 <>> 
 ■NGERSOLL, RALPH ISAAC, lawyer, of New Haven. Bora in New 
 
 Haven, February 8th, 1789. His father was among the foremost members 
 of the legal profession, was a gentlemen of great moral worth, and held 
 many influential public positions. His grandfather, the Rev. Jonathan Inger- 
 soll, was a Congregational minister, settled at Ridgefield. 
 
 After graduation at Yale College in 1808, Mr. Ingersoll read law for two 
 years with Seth P. Staples, founder of the New Haven Law School, and then 
 opened an office in his native city. David Daggett, Seth P. Staples, and Nathan 
 Smith were then the leaders of the bar. The latter gave cordial encouragement 
 to the young practitioner, who assisted him in the preparation of his cases, and 
 ever afterward spoke of him in terms of admiration. As the associate, and not 
 unfrequently as the opponent of these distinguished men, young Ingersoll rose to 
 reputation. Merit, assiduity, and self-reliance won commendation and commanded 
 success. In 1813, yielding to the prevailing passion for military honors, he became 
 second lieutenant of the Horse Guards ; and, in the next year, brigade-major 
 and inspector. Second Brigade, under General Howe. In the exercise of his func- 
 tions as inspector, he subjected the swords and bayonets to such severe tests that 
 many of them were broken. Indignant complaints were preferred, and he was 
 publicly tried by court-martial. Defending himself with signal ability, he bared his 
 puny arm, and insisted that weapons breaking under such pressure as it could 
 impose were unfit for actual service. The effect was electric, and he was triumph- 
 antly acquitted. 
 
 In 18 1 7 his political career began as the opponent of proscription and the 
 advocate of equality and popular rights, in the State contest between the Feder- 
 alists and Liberals. In 18 18 he was nominated by the Reform party for Congress 
 in compliment to his fearless bravery. A new Constitution, taking the place of 
 King Charles's . charter was framed and adopted in the same year. In April, 1819, 
 he was elected first Representative to the State Legislature from New Haven— 
 previously a strong Federal town. During the session, he was chosen second clerk, 
 assumed the second place on the Judiciary Committee, and took a high position 
 among the principal debaters. Earnest, able, and eloquent, his work proved so satis- 
 factory to his townsmen that they returned him again and again to the House until 
 he was wanted for higher service. In 1820 and 1821 he was chairman of the 
 Finance Committee, and in 1824, Speaker. In April, 1825, he was elected Repre- 
 sentative to Congress, and vacated his seat in the House, to which he had again 
 been chosen. In Washington he supported the administration of President Adams, 
 who had been chosen to the chief magistracy by the National House of Repre- 
 sentatives. He remained in Congress by successive re-elections, from 1825 to 1833. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P^ D I A . 
 
 199 
 
 Between these years he served as Mayor of New Haven, in 1830-31. In Congress 
 
 he took high rank among the members. For three years he was a member of the 
 
 Committee on the District of Columbia; and in 1829 served on that of Ways and 
 
 Means, the most important committee of the House. Here he served four years, 
 
 and was associated with McDuffie of South Carolina, Verplanck of New York, and 
 
 at the close, Polk of Tennessee. Able, active, watchful, and incorruptible, he shrank 
 
 from no responsibility, and gave his time to the public business as he would have 
 
 done to his own. Of General Jackson he was for some time suspicious, but when 
 
 convinced that the President was a wiser and better man than he seemed, Mr. 
 
 Ingersoll gave him patriotic and wise support. This occasioned his subsequent defeat, 
 
 in April, 1834, as candidate for town representative in the State election. Secretary 
 
 Taney, by order of Jackson, had notified the Bank of the United States, that after 
 
 the ist of October, 1833, ^lo more Government funds would be placed in its keeping. 
 
 Intense excitement everywhere sprang up, and financial panic followed. Business was 
 
 paralyzed, factories closed, and operatives thrown out of employment. In vain it was 
 
 argued that national politics had nothing to do with the State election. The voters 
 
 believed otherwise, and Mr. Ingersoll was rejected. From that time onward he 
 
 declined all legislative honors. 
 
 Returning to the practice of law, he found himself comparatively without busi- 
 ness. He had, as was customary, wholly abandoned legal practice on going to 
 Congress. Now, at the age of forty-four, as his former clients had engaged 
 other counsel, he was obliged to begin anew. This he did with disciplined skill 
 and assiduity, and soon regained all he had lost. But pecuniary competency was 
 not very early attained. In 1836, the great fire in New York swept away much of 
 the property that had been reserved for the use of his family. The loss only incited 
 to greater exertion. In 1833 he became State Attorney, and discharged the duties of 
 that official for the twelve years ensmng with wonted faithfulness and success. In 
 December, 1835, he peremptorily declined an election to the vacancy in the United 
 States Senate occasioned by the death of his old friend, Nathan Smith. Nomination 
 for the governorship of the State was also repeatedly declined. The resolve to 
 accept no political honors that interfered with the practice of his profession was 
 immovable — save in a single instance. In 1846, President Polk appointed him 
 Minister Plenipotentiary to the Russian court, without his knowledge or consent. 
 On the 9th of August that gentleman wrote Mr. Ingersoll, and said: "In this 
 instance, at least, the office has sought the man, and not the man the office ;" and 
 added, " I hope you may accept the highly honorable and responsible station now 
 tendered to you." The nominee did accept the post, and for two years did " great 
 service to the country" and " honor to the station" as well as to himself He then 
 
2DO BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 gladly returned to his profession, and practised it with remarkable vigor and brilliant 
 success for the next twenty years. 
 
 Mr. IngersoU never lost interest in national politics, nor ceased to direct the 
 energies of his party to worthy and patriotic ends. He attended its consultative 
 meetings, influenced it by unobtrusive advice, prepared resolutions, and wrote and 
 spoke as emergency demanded. Through all his active life he preserved perfect 
 freedom from disreputable political practices, and denounced them as unprofitable and 
 demoralizing. He was a statesman of the old, courtly, dignified, and stainless school. 
 To his profession he gave unstinted love, took no vacations, and brought all the 
 forces of his gifted nature into full play in the achievement of legal excellence and 
 eminence. He was a hard student of books and also of human nature, and his 
 knowledge of both — aided by thorough preparation of his cases, and by fluent speech, 
 graceful elocution, and natural gestures — enabled him to captivate the heads and 
 hearts of juries. He was a remarkably magnetic speaker, and also an accomplished 
 and experienced writer. His life was pure and exemplary, his nature averse to 
 public corruption and private depravity, his habit one of prudent forecast, and his 
 whole example a model of republican simplicity. He continued in practice, with 
 unclouded intellect, until nearly eighty years of age ; and died on the 26th of 
 August, 1872, beloved and mourned by all. In his later years he was a communi- 
 cant in Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 Mr. IngersoU was married, on the loth of February, 1814, to Margaret Van 
 den Heuvel, of New York, a lady of Dutch ancestry, and of great energy and 
 discretion, who survived his death. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 201 
 
 'ARRISON, HENRY BALDWIN, lawyer, of New Haven. Born in New 
 Haven, September nth, 1821. His father, Ammi Harrison, was a legal 
 practitioner in the same city, and an influential citizen. He died at 
 Branford, Conn., in 1837. His father, the grandfather of Henry B. Harri- 
 son, also bore the Christian name of Ammi. In the earlier portion of active life 
 he followed the pursuit of a ship-captain in the West India trade, and in the later 
 addicted himself to agriculture. The Harrison family has been prominently identified 
 with Branford from the date of its settlement, and has contributed its full quota 
 of members to the legal and clerical professions. The mother of Mr. Harrison — 
 born in New Haven, and dying there in 1859 — was Polly, daughter of Samuel 
 Barney, of Taunton, Mass. Mr. Barney was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, 
 the orderly-sergeant of Benedict Arnold's company, and his associate in the expedi- 
 tion to Quebec. He died in New Haven some time after the declaration of peace. 
 
 The early scholastic education of young Harrison was received in the excel- 
 lent public schools of the city. Thence he matriculated at Yale College in 1842, 
 graduated as A.B. in 1846, and subsequently received the degree of A.M. in due 
 course. A hard and successful student while at college, he carried the same 
 habits into the law office of Governor Dutton, with whom he began and continued 
 his preparation for practice at the bar — attending the regular course of instruction 
 in the Yale Law School at the same time. Admitted to the bar in 18^8, he at 
 once entered upon professional duties in New Haven, has vigorously prosecuted 
 them in the same city to the present time, and with such distinguished ability as 
 to establish a reputation second to that of no other practitioner in the State. 
 His fame as a man and a citizen is on the same high plane, and has been con- 
 sistently maintained for more than thirty years of forensic and consultative activity — 
 mostly in civil cases — in the courts of the State. 
 
 Participancy in legislative and executive functions is naturally and righteously 
 demanded of cultured and upright lawyers, and to this demand Mr. Harrison 
 has rendered prompt and satisfactory response. In 1854 he was elected to the 
 State Senate from the Fourth District — which included the city of New Haven — 
 by the Whig party, and served in that relation for one year. The times were 
 agitated by conflicting opinions and interests. The social system that rested on 
 human slavery as its corner-stone sought to extend its baneful power in larger 
 measure over the national republic, and it had become necessary to resist its arro- 
 gant and cruel claims by all constitutional and legitimate means. Mr. Harrison 
 therefore drafted the Personal Liberty Bill, which, under the title of An Act for 
 the Defense of Liberty in this State, became the law of the commonwealth, after 
 much heated discussion and antagonism. It provides that any one who shall mali- 
 
202 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^D I A . 
 
 ciously pretend that any free person, entitled to freedom, is a slave, with the intent 
 of relegating him, or her, to bondage, shall suffer fine and imprisonment ; that 
 no representation tending to such reduction to slavery shall be received as truth' 
 unless confirmed by the testimony of two credible witnesses, or by legal evidence 
 equivalent thereto ; that every person who shall wrongfully seize any free person 
 entitled to freedom, with intent to have such free person held in slavery, shall 
 suffer fine and imprisonment ; that in the trial of any prosecution arising under 
 this act, no deposition shall be admitted as evidence of the truth of its own 
 contents ; that false testimony in behalf of the slave claimant shall be punished ; 
 that whenever any one shall aid parties accused under the provisions of this act to 
 escape from the State, or shall hinder the proper officer in the discharge of his 
 duty, he shall be incarcerated for one year in the State prison ; and that this act shall 
 not apply to apprentices. The act itself is most ingeniously drawn, and throws around, 
 the personal liberty of each individual a very thorny fence, in which, to the sharp- 
 ened eyes of experienced slave-catchers, any number of sable gentlemen might be 
 concealed — niggers whose closer acquaintance they did not care to cultivate. Fines 
 of five thousand dollars, and imprisonments five years long, were evils that the 
 possession of no human runaway chattel would quite neutralize — and still worse evils 
 if said chattel were not caught. 
 
 After the dissolution of the Whig party, he identified himself with the Republican 
 organization as soon as formed in the State, became an active and persistent mem- 
 ber of its councils, and in 1856 was its first candidate for Lieutenant-Governor in 
 Connecticut. 
 
 In 1865, Mr. Harrison was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives 
 by the Republicans of New Haven, and while there served as chairman of the Joint 
 Railroad Committee of the Senate and House. He also acted as member of several 
 other committees, and notably on that of Incorporations. The impress of his knowl- 
 edge and ability is stamped upon the prohibitory liquor law, which was enacted 
 during the same session. In 1872 he was elected a representative of the Yale 
 alumni to the Corporation of Yale College, has since been re-elected, and is still a 
 a member of that body. 
 
 In 1873, he again represented his district in the lower house of the State 
 Legislature, and served with distinction on the Judiciary and other committees, and 
 particularly upon the one which held in consideration the propriety and expediency 
 of calling a convention to revise the laws of the State. In the following year he 
 received the Republican nomination for the chief magistracy, but in the election the 
 popular choice fell upon Governor Ingersoll. 
 
 Mr. Harrison was married, in 1856, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas B. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P^ D 1 A . 
 
 203 
 
 Osborne, of Fairfield, Conn., who was at one time Judge of the County Court, 
 also member of Congress for two terms, and one of the professors in the Yale Law 
 School, from which he retired a few years before his death at New Haven in 1869. 
 
 *OWE, ELI AS, Jr., of Bridgeport, Conn., inventor of the sewing-machine. 
 Born in Spencer, Mass., July 19th, 181 9. The Howe family is one of 
 l^it greatest eminence in the annals of Great Britain, and also of the United 
 3 States. Generals bearing that patronymic were in influential commanding 
 
 positions on both sides during the American Revolutionary struggle. The genius 
 and energy characteristic of the family sought and found entirely new outlets in the 
 case of Elias Howe. He lived with his father, who was both fai'mer and miller, 
 working upon the farm and in the mill, and attending the district school during 
 the winters. 
 
 In 1835 he went to Lowell, and learned the trade of a machinist. Afterward 
 he removed to Boston, and worked in the machine-shops of that city. There he 
 experimented in the invention of the labor-saving machine that has immortalized 
 his name, and sensibly mitigated the toil of the matron and seamstress. Other 
 inventions of similar character preceded it both in England and the United States, 
 but it was reserved for him to give the idea an embodied efficiency, and to 
 introduce this beneficent instrument into almost every family. 
 
 The model was completed, and the first complete sewing-machine designed for 
 general purposes was patented September lolh, 1846. Mr. Howe was then a resi- 
 dent of Cambridge, Mass. " He used a needle and a shuttle of novel construction, 
 and combined them with holding surfaces, feed mechanism, and other devices, as 
 they had never before been brought together in one machine. They were all 
 indeed combined anew by Mr. Howe, who was unacquainted with what had been 
 done by others; and his machine, though not patented till 1846, was really 
 invented several years before" the machine of John Fisher and James Gibbons, of 
 England, patented December 7th, 1844. "One of the principal features of Mr. 
 Howe's invention is the combination of a grooved needle, having an eye near its 
 point and vibrating in the direction of its length, with a side-pointed shuttle for 
 eflfecting a locked stitch and forming with the threads, one on each side the cloth, 
 a firm and lasting seam not easily ripped." 
 
204 BIOGRAP HICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 Heroically persistent, but poor and neglected, and working for a time as an engine- 
 driver on a railroad, with small wages, and with broken health, he literally forced 
 his way to success. A patent was taken out in England, but from this he realized 
 nothing. After constructing four machines in the United States, he visited England 
 in 1847, and remained two years. His utmost exertions failed to bring the sewing- 
 machine under the favorable notice of the public. Entirely destitute, he returned to 
 Boston, and resumed his trade for the support of his family. Worse even than his 
 want of success in Europe was the discovery that his patent had been violated in 
 America. 
 
 From 1849 to 1854 he was involved in expensive litigation with those who had 
 infringed his rights. Trustful friends lent him pecuniary assistance, and in 1854 
 judgment was finally rendered in his favor. All the essentials of the most improved 
 sewing-machines were first found in that of Mr. Howe, and machines of later date 
 are but modifications of it. In rendering his decision in the United States Circuit 
 Court for Massachusetts, Judge Sprague said : " There is no evidence in the case that 
 leaves a shadow of doubt, that for all the benefit conferred upon the public by the 
 introduction of a sewing-machine, the public are indebted to Mr. Howe." "The lock 
 stitch he introduced has not been improved, and for the general purposes of sewing 
 nothing further is desired." — New American Cyclopedia, vol. xiv., p. 534. It is adapted 
 to the whole range of needlework, from the lightest gossamer to the heaviest harness 
 and upholstery. 
 
 Until the expiration of his patent, manufacturers constructed sewing-machines 
 under license from him, and he realized a large fortune from his invention. Inge- 
 nious men effected decided improvements upon his apparatus ; but still of such 
 character that they could only be used subject to his original patents. Mr. Howe 
 pursued a liberal policy in granting licenses for the use of his patent, and thus 
 interested skilful mechanics and enterprising capitalists in the production and sale 
 of the machines. The Enghsh purchaser of his patent was too exclusive to imitate 
 his example, and could not produce work of equal quality and cost with that done 
 in the factories of Bridgeport, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. The result was 
 that a new item was added to American manufactured exports — an item which 
 has gone on increasing in value from that day to this. Up to 1854 less than 
 8000 sewing-machines had been made. Since then the monthly product of all the 
 factories — ^judging from available statistics — has been fully up to those figures. 
 
 When the civil war broke out in 1861, Elias Howe, with the ancient spirit 
 of his family, took a decided stand in favor of the National Government. The for- 
 tune acquired by his genius and toil was nothing in his estimation compared with 
 the life and liberties of the country. At a public meeting, held in Stepney, Conn., 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 205 
 
 the sympathizers with slavery and secession — in the spirit of their kind — threatened 
 to shoot the Unionist speakers. Howe was in the chair, and made the following 
 concise and comprehensive address anent the threat : " If they fire a gun, boys, burn 
 the whole town, and I'll pay for it." The cowardly " peace" men did not care to 
 practise their peculiar policy, and accepted the wholesome advice next given to 
 them concerning duty to the Federal Government in sullen silence. 
 
 Mr. Howe next volunteered as a private of the Seventeenth Connecticut Vol- 
 unteers, and served for some time. At one time, when the regiment had not been 
 paid off, and the men needed money, he advanced the thirteen thousand dollars 
 due to them. 
 
 On July 19th, 1865, the Seventeenth Connecticut was mustered out at Hilton 
 Head, and embarked immediately for home. It arrived at New Haven on the 3d 
 of August. " Private Elias Howe, Jr., of Bridgeport, chartered a special train, and 
 they proceeded to that city, where they were enthusiastically received," the Rev. A. 
 R. Thompson making the welcoming speech. (^History of Connecticut during the 
 Recent War, p. 818.) 
 
 Elias Howe was a true and noble patriot, and proud of the honor of serving 
 his country in the capacity of a private soldier. His patriotic countrymen were 
 equally proud of him. He received the cross of the Legion of Honor and many 
 medals. His name must shine resplendent forever in the bead-roll of true fame. 
 He died at Brooklyn, N. Y., October 3d, 1867. 
 
2o6 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 'RIGHT, DEXTER RUSSELL, lawyer, of New Haven. Born at Windsor, 
 Vermont, June 27th, 1821. His father, Alpheus Wright, according to the 
 History of Wallingford, by C. H. S. Davis, M.D., was an officer in the 
 war of 1812, and was severely wounded at the battle of Plattsburg. 
 His mother, 7zce Anna B. Loveland, was the daughter of — — Loveland, of Rocking- 
 ham, Vermont. 
 
 Mr. Wright's ancestors were among the first settlers in the State of Vermont, 
 and one of them was slain in the frontier wars with the Indians and Canadians. 
 His father removed to the northern part of New York, while Dexter was yet a 
 youth, and engaged in the milling and lumber business. He also conducted a woollen 
 factory. Each of his sons was employed in these various pursuits, and was taught 
 some useful trade. Inclining to literary and professional avocations. Dexter prepared 
 himself for college, and entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, where he 
 graduated in the year 1845. He has since received the degree of A.M., cazisa Jionores, 
 from Trinity College, Hartford. 
 
 In the year of his graduation, Mr. Wright accepted the position of principal 
 of the Meriden Academy, Conn., and discharged the duties pertaining thereto, for 
 about a year and a half Many of the most energetic and successful business men 
 of Meriden received their early instruction from him. Under his thorough teaching 
 and firm discipline the institution acquired considerable reputation and prosperity. 
 From 1846 to 1848 he studied the theory and practice of law in the office of 
 E. K. Foster, Esq., and also in the Law School of Yale University at New Haven. 
 Both in his collegiate course and in his legal studies at Yale, he gave much promise 
 of future distinction in his chosen profession, and particularly in the practice of 
 advocacy at the bar. After his graduation from the Law School in 1848, he com- 
 menced the practice of law at Meriden, and continued it for many years. 
 
 The public political life of Mr. W" right began in 1849, with his election to the 
 State Senate from the Sixth Senatorial District, by the Democratic party, with which 
 he at that time associated. After serving throughout the session of the Legislature, 
 with ci-edit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents, he sailed for California, and 
 there engaged in land speculations, in the practice of law in the Territorial courts, 
 and in making the political history of the State. In 1851 he returned to Meriden, 
 resumed professional pursuits, and followed them until 1862, when he was commis- 
 sioned as colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. In the 
 devotement of life to the preservation of the Union, he sacrificed a large and success- 
 ful practice, in the course of which he had acquired the esteem and confidence of all 
 men for his honesty, public spirit, and thorough quahfications as a lawyer. To him 
 the people of Meriden are much indebted for the tasteful beauty and general 
 
S»' 
 
 ^^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA . 207 
 
 improvements of their city. His enterprise wrought powerfully in stimulating their 
 zeal and ambition. 
 
 In the year 1861 and 1862 he recruited companies and parts of companies for 
 each of the Connecticut regiments then raised for the national defense. At the 
 immense war-meeting, held in Meriden, April, 1861, immediately after the capture of 
 Fort Sumter by the rebels, he was one of the principal speakers, and eloquently 
 urged the necessity of speedy and vigorous action. In May, 1862, he responded to 
 Governor Buckingham's call for volunteers to organize another regiment, designed to 
 form part of the " camp of instruction" at Annapolis, and was commissioned lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of the Fourteenth. On the ist of July came President Lincoln's call 
 for three hundred thousand volunteers for three years, seconded in Connecticut by 
 a stirring appeal from the Governor. The response was spontaneous and grand. In 
 forty-five days Connecticut had filled her quota of 6145 ; thus leading all the sister 
 States, and had besides a surplus of nearly one thousand men. Seven additional regi- 
 ments were organized, and of the first of these, the Fifteenth, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Wright was commissioned colonel. This appointment was all the more compliment- 
 ary, in that it was made by Governor Buckingham without any consultation of 
 the recipients wishes, and solely in view of his fitness and patriotism. That it was 
 as judicious in itself as it was honorable to the new commander was manifest in 
 the fact that he recruited the regiment to its full number, and several hundred in 
 excess, within a very brief period, by his personal exertions and popularity. 
 
 The Fifteenth was sent to Virginia in August, 1862, served in Washington 
 for some weeks, then moved across the Potomac again on the 1 7th of September, 
 and reoccupied their former camp on Arlington Heights. Colonel Wright, at the 
 latter epoch, commanded a brigade, and on December ist marched it through the 
 city, down the Maryland bank of the river, and, recrossing the Potomac at Acquia 
 Creek, reached Fredericksbuig, where his regiment was put into Harland's brigade. 
 In the terrible battle that ensued, December 13th, 1862, his regiment bore a part, 
 under the command of General Burnside. He continued with the army in the 
 field until health gave way, and was then honorably discharged upon surgeon's 
 certificate of disability. The twelve months of military service were afterward 
 followed by the appointment of commissioner on the Board of Enrollment for the 
 Second Congressional District, at the special request of Governor Buckingham. 
 The duties of this office also were performed with signal ability and zeal. 
 
 In 1863 Colonel Wright was elected to the General Assembly of Connecticut 
 by the Republican party as a representative from the town of Meriden. Important 
 work awaited him in that body, in which he was at once recognized as the 
 Republican leader. Governor Buckingham had just been re-elected Governor by a 
 
2o8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 small majority of 2637, in a total vote of 79,247; and, together with his supporters, 
 was enthusiastically determined on the suppression of the rebellion by armed coercion, 
 and on the support of the Emancipation Proclamation "as a measure of military 
 necessity, alike expedient and just." William W. Eaton introduced resolutions, 
 relative to the case of Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, which embodied in cautious 
 language the doctrines of Calhoun, and affirmed the right of every State to judge 
 for itself \vhether the Federal Government had transgressed the letter and spirit 
 of the national organic law, and to take such measures as, in the opinion of a 
 majority of the people of that State, the exigencies of the case demanded. Im- 
 pliedly, they denied the nationality of the United States, and affirmed that they 
 constitute a voluntary copartnership, dissolvable at pleasure, for cause sufficient. 
 The debate was unsuited to the times. Its true arena was where plunging 
 bayonets, and thundering cannon spoke on both sides the question. Colonel Wright 
 replied to the forceful and vigorous speech of Mr. Eaton in a masterly oration, 
 which eloquently maintained the duty of loyalty to the Federal Union, commanded 
 the convictions of the majority of his hearers, and roused alike the members of 
 the House and the occupants of the galleries to noblest enthusiam. The vote 
 was of strictly partisan character, but was in favor of the Republicans, whom it 
 united more thoroughly than before in the prosecution of the war. Colonel Wright, 
 as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, soon afterward prepared a bill 
 which provided for a compensated volunteer force, which should be armed, uniformed, 
 and equipped by the State, and which the Governor should have the power of 
 turning over, in whole or in part, to the General Government for short service. 
 The measure met with violent opposition, and was finally lost, but in its leading 
 features was soon after enacted by stronger Republican legislatures, and under this 
 law an efficient militia was organized. 
 
 In the extra session of the Legislature held in the fall of 1863, Governor Buck- 
 ingham, in reply to a resolution of that body asking information, sent a message 
 stating that in July preceding he had distributed seven hundred and fifteen muskets 
 and sets of accoutrements to different persons — upon execution of proper bonds for 
 their safe-keeping and return — and among them to Dexter R. Wright, of Meriden, 
 to prevent any riotous opposition to the execution of the draft under congressional 
 authority. The armed resistance that was threatened never occurred. Had it broken 
 out, the two hundred muskets and sets of accoutrements entrusted to the care of 
 Colonel Wright would have doubtless done service in suppressing domestic insurrection. 
 In the same session Colonel Wright drafted and introduced a bill authorizing the 
 Governor to organize regiments of colored infantry in Connecticut. It was passed in 
 the General Assembly, notwithstanding the unmeasured denunciations of its antagonists, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 209 
 
 and in pursuance of its provisions the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Regiments of 
 Connecticut Volunteer were raised and sent to the field, where, both in Virginia 
 and Texas, they proved themselves to be the worthy compatriots of the colored 
 warriors of Massachusets and Rhode Island, and also of the heroic soldiery of 
 Caucasian blood. 
 
 Near the close of the war, in which, at great pecuniary cost. Colonel Wright had 
 served in the field, and as commissioner, for nearly three years, he removed to New 
 Haven, resumed the practice of law, and has continued therein to the present time. 
 From 1865 to 1869 he served as 'Assistant United States District Attorney for Con- 
 necticut, and discharged the duties of that position with his wonted acceptability and 
 success. In 1868 he was chosen a member of the Common Council of New Haven, 
 and in 1872-3 was President of the Court of Common Council of the same city. 
 From 1872 to 1875 he was Commissioner of Police of the city of New Haven, and 
 within those limits — 1873-4 — also held the post of Corporation Counsel. In 1877 he 
 was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen, and in 1878 was re-elected for two 
 years. In the latter year he was also chosen a representative from the town of New 
 Haven to the General Aesembly for 1879, ^"^ in the legislative session of 1879 was 
 elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, which position he filled with 
 signal ability, and with great satisfaction to the body over which he presided. 
 
 Colonel Wright has led a busy, eventful, and studious life. Not alone in legal 
 lore, but also in general literature and national science he is well versed. With 
 medical studies he is so familiar that the honorary degree of M.D. has been con- 
 ferred upon him. All knowledge, in his true estimation, stands related to the 
 theory and practice of law. Upright, honorable, and thoroughly disciplined ; a first- 
 class lawyer, an earnest and eloquent speaker, and a laborious worker, he has built 
 up a large and lucrative practice, and adorns while he enjoys the position so hardly 
 and honorably won. 
 
 Colonel Wright was married on the 3d of February, 1848, to Maria H., 
 daughter of Colonel Epaphras L. Phelps, of East Windsor, Conn., and has had 
 issue six children, of whom four survive. 
 
 14 
 
LP 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^ D I A . 
 
 ENCKES, THOMAS ALLEN, of Providence, Rhode Island. Born Novem- 
 ber 2d, 1818, in the town of Cumberland, on the estate where he died. He 
 was descended from an old Rhode Island family, which was identified with 
 the early settlement of the State, and which has always maintained a position 
 of high respectability. The Providence Journal of January 5th, 1875, states that 
 he lived with Samuel F. Man until he went to college, and that there he learned 
 many a useful, practical lesson which he never forgot. Among them w^as the art 
 of book-keeping. Few experts were more thoroughly versed in it. He detected 
 and exposed many a well-laid scheme of fraud in a set of books. 
 
 From the house of Mr. Man he went to Brown Universit)^ and graduated 
 from it with the class of 1838, which was one of more than ordinary distinctions- 
 including Judge Chas. S. Bradley, Judge Marcus Morton, President E. G. Robinson, 
 and many others. Judge Bradley first saw him " walking up the paths of the 
 college green to Hope College, a chubby, rather overgrown boy, in a roundabout 
 and home-made clothing, with no grace of movement, but rather an awkward swing, 
 which," said he, "I can now see indicated something in his character, for 'the 
 child is the father of the man' — that is, nature gives us certain qualities which may 
 be said to make their way, aided or thwarted by education, into the man of 
 the future." " There was a consciousness of power in his very carriage — a move- 
 ment which he had a right by nature to assume." His teacher had been a 
 clergyman without a parish, a man who had a great faculty for mathematics, 
 and who took great pride in the development of his only pupil. At college 
 young Jenckes was characterized by marked individuality and by tireless labor. 
 " His journeyings and studies were prolonged without regard to the periodic rest 
 which nature demands. He was indifferent to choice in his physical sustenance, 
 as he was when he spurned our Graham table and its abstinences." This indiffer- 
 ence to the established laws of health was doubtless one cause of his comparatively 
 early removal. Both at school and at college he was distinguished for love of 
 study, great capacity for labor, wonderful memory, and unusual acquirements in litera- 
 ture, and for wit, love of poetry, mathematics, and physical science. His memory, 
 particularly, was marvellous, 
 
 'Wax to receive, and marble to retain.'" 
 
 His faculty of applying its treasures to the relief of present emergencies was no less 
 remarkable. "Whatever he knew that could bear upon the question before him, 
 whether of fact, of illustration, or argument, rose spontaneously, at the moment when 
 it was most useful to him. What others studied and recalled and hunted authorities 
 for, he simply remembered, and apprehended, and applied." His power of analysis 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO PJED I A . 211 
 
 was amazing. Years and practice only increased its vigor. " He could go through 
 a case, and give a knowledge of the principles upon which it had been decided, 
 with more rapidity than I [Hon. James H. Parsons] ever met with. General 
 Gushing, our Minister to Spain, once said to me: 'Mr. Jenckes possesses two quali- 
 fications, which, if he possessed only ordinary ability, would make him a cultivated 
 and accomplished lawyer. But, with his great ability, they make him a great one.' 
 Said I, ' What are these qualities .?' Said he, ' Intense power of concentration 
 combined with an amazing memory.' " Thorough and profound as his knowledge of 
 the law was, his knowledge of general topics was as profound and accurate. Like 
 Sergeant Talfourd, the accomplished lawyer and cultivated judge, who is best known 
 by his poems and literary essays, Mr. Jenckes was passionately fond of polite litera- 
 ture. 
 
 When he left college he began his preparations for legal pursuits at once. 
 Entering Mr. Atwell's office in Chepachet, he undertook to make himself master 
 of his profession, taking not, as Bacon said, " all knowledge for his province, but all 
 the love of the profession he meant to make his own." Even his strong powers 
 quailed before the mighty task of thoi^oughly studying the law as a science, and as 
 a whole, before he would undertake to apply it to practice. Gharles S. Bradley 
 wrote to him : " Why not come down here and take a tutorship in mathematics. 
 It would be but play to you, and perhaps rather a healthier atmosphere than the 
 hardness of your present studies." He accepted the position for a tim'e. 
 
 Admitted to the bar in 1840, he went into the office of Edward H. Hazard, 
 of Providence, and expressed some impatience to go to work. They at once formed 
 a copartnership, which commenced on the 25th of September, and continued eleven 
 years. The purposes of the partners were one, and they had no secrets from each 
 other. Between the two no word of unkindness ever passed throughout the entire 
 period of their association. 
 
 Mr. Jenckes rapidly rose to eminence in his profession. " He was first brought 
 prominently into notice by an argument before Judge Story, in a case under the 
 bankrupt law of 1841, in which he took a position against the opinion of the 
 general legal authorities, and carried the court in what seemed a strained construction 
 of the law. The act was approved August 19th, 1841, but did not go into effect 
 till February ist, 1842. It forbade preferences to creditors made in contemplation 
 of bankruptcy. On the 18th of December, 1841, George W. Taylor made an assign- 
 ment to Amasa Manton, preferring him to his other creditors. The question was 
 whether this preference was forbidden by the act which was passed previous to the 
 date of the assignment, but did not go into effect till afterward. Mr. Whipple, 
 Mr. Atwell, and other leading lawyers gave their opinion sustaining the assignment. 
 
212 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 Mr. Jenckes, then a very young man, gave his opinion against all this weight of 
 authority, and the court (Judge Story) so held." "The presentation of the case was 
 wholly his own, and the reputation which it gave to him was abundantly justified by 
 his subsequent triumphs in his profession." 
 
 The general voice of his professional contemporaries placed him at the head of 
 the Rhode Island bar during the greater part of his practice. No other man among 
 them, it is probable, ever rose so rapidly, or received such large rewards for his 
 services. " He had given great attention to the law of patents, for the practice in 
 which he was further qualified by mechanical tastes and acquirements; and he was 
 employed in many of the heaviest patent cases that have been litigated for the last 
 thirty years" [1875J. His "information upon mechanical and scientific matters was 
 illustrated in a report which he made on the ventilation of the halls of Congress. 
 The subject was referred to a joint select committee, of which he was chairman, on 
 the part of the House, and in the conduct of which he astonished his colleagues 
 and the experts by his acquaintance with the principles, the methods, the defects, 
 and the difficulties of the whole matter." The pride he felt in this achievement was 
 far greater than that experienced in those of much greater relative importance. 
 '' When the Government decided to proceed against the parties to the Credit Mobilier 
 in the Pacific Railroad, Mr. Jenckes was selected as one of the counsel on the part 
 of the Government ; but his failing health prohibited him from that active and leading 
 part in the case which had been expected from his talents and his reputation. His 
 name was familiar in all the courts, and much of his practice was in the city of New 
 York, where he had an office. His practice was also large in the Supreme Court 
 at Washington." His connection with suits growing out of the Sickles and Corliss 
 patents relating to the steam-engine, and the famous Day and Goodyear rubber 
 suits, frequently took him into the circuit courts of the different States, and into 
 the Supreme Court of the United States. He was engaged in nearly every important 
 ■litigation pending in the State. Only a Herculean constitution could have enabled 
 him to perform such numerous and gigantic tasks. In the terrible panic of 1857 "his 
 labors were literally restless, and during many nights he did not take off his clothes." 
 
 Mr. Jenckes was a natural politician in the true sense of the word. In the 
 insurrection of 1842 he adhered to the constituted authorities, whom he served in 
 a civil and in a military capacity, and whose cause he supported with his pen. 
 "He was one of the secretaries of the Landholders' Convention of 1841, and of 
 the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State in 1842. When 
 the Governor's Council was established, he was appointed its secretary." At that 
 time he was a contributor to the columns of the Providence Journal, and by the 
 •keenness of his wit and the spirit of his travesties and satires, gave great interest 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 213 
 
 and liveliness to that excellent periodical. " He served in both houses of the General 
 Assembly, v^rith the ability and distinction he displayed in whatever employment. 
 There he made a remarkable speech in the celebrated case of Hazard and Ives, 
 involving the right of the General Assembly to revise the judgments of the court 
 so far as to direct a new trial. This speech, with that of Nathan F. Dixon, after- 
 ward his colleague in Congress, carried the General Assembly against its own 
 previous opinion, against what was undoubtedly the popular sentiment and the 
 prejudice of tradition, and against some of the most powerful appeals ever made to 
 the people of the State. This was one of the greatest forensic triumphs in the 
 annals of Rhode Island." From 1840 to 1844 he held office as one of the clerks 
 of the House of Representatives, and during that period perfected himself in all the 
 forms as well as substance of legislation. Governor Dorr's office joined that of 
 Jenckes & Hazard till he left in 1842. When Governor King appointed his Coun- 
 cil, they held daily sessions in the office of the firm for seven months. Mr. Jenckes 
 was appointed their secretary. " Every state paper was drawn by him, and bears his 
 impress." He " possessed by far the most perfect collection of documents and letters 
 for a history of the Dorr Rebellion of any man in the State." It was his purpose 
 to supervise the editing of such a work, and made provision for its execution by a 
 competent hand before his death. He was secretary of both the conventions that 
 assembled to frame a constitution, and in the " several capacities of clerk of the 
 House, secretary to the Governor and Council, and secretary of the conventions to 
 frame the Constitution, and made the personal acquaintance of every leading man in 
 the State, and performed "an astonishing amount of labor." As a constitutional 
 lawyer he had few equals, and perhaps no superiors. His great speech in the case 
 of Hazard and Ives "will long be remambered by all who listened to it, not only 
 for the great learning which it displayed, but also for the irresistible logic with 
 which it sustained the position for which he contended, that under our Constitution 
 the judicial power was vested solely and exclusively in the courts. It was a great 
 speech, and a masterly vindication of the great principles of liberty and law upon 
 which a free government rests." In 1855 he was appointed one of the Commission- 
 ers to revise the laws of the State. The Revised Statutes of 1857 were the result 
 of their labors. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. Jenckes was elected a member of the National House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and served therein for four successive terms. " He at once took a 
 commanding position in the House. He was placed at the head of the Committee 
 on Patents, and on the Committee on the Judiciary. When the impeachment of 
 Johnson was voted by the House, he came within a few votes of being selected as 
 one of the managers. Some of his most distinguished services in Congress were 
 
214 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO FJI.D I A . 
 
 upon the civil service reform, the general bankrupt law, and the patent and copyright 
 law. But he took a prominent part in all the deliberations of the House, and on legal 
 questions he was an acknov^rledged authority with the best lawyers of the body. 
 He was a firm and vigorous supporter of the war for the maintenance of the Union, 
 in the begrinninff, and took an advanced view of the measures that were necessaiy 
 for its successful prosecution. Before the rebellion became flagrant, he was deeply 
 impressed with the gravity of the crisis and with the certainty of the impending 
 struggle. " He did not," continues his biographer in the Providence Journal, " under- 
 estimate the strength of the enemy, but he never doubted the success of our arms, 
 and looked forward to a final triumph with a confidence based on the justness of 
 the cruse, and the superior resources of the national party. He was in communica- 
 tion with Mr. Stanton, when that strong and patriotic man was penetrating the 
 secrets of the rebel leaders, and especially of those marvels of treachery, who, while 
 holding intimate and responsible relations with the Government, were in complicity 
 w'ith the conspirators for its overthrow ; who were disposing of the scanty military 
 resources of the country in such manner that they might most easily fall into the 
 hands that would turn them against us ; and were ordering everything for the success 
 of the rebellion, of which they were among the chief promoters. Entertaining these 
 views, and possessing this information, Mr. Jenckes urged upon the State and Federal 
 Governments the most active and vigorous measures, and employed his personal 
 influence with his fellow-citizens to the same end. In his apprehensions and in his 
 poHcy he agreed mainly with Governor Andrew, as did his opinions in a large 
 degree. Both these eminent men were thought by too many to have overestimated 
 the magnitude of the crisis, but both were soon and abundantly justified by the 
 attitude of the Southern States." While in Congress he was among the first, if not 
 the very first, to make the appointments for cadets at West Point depend upon com- 
 petitive examinations, and not upon his will or favor. 
 
 Perhaps none of our American statesmen have more clearly seen the dano-er 
 to the system of self-government by the people, arising from the corruption of those 
 appointed to public service, and from the selfish uses of power by public men, than 
 Mr. Jenckes. To meet this danger he proposed measures to test by examination 
 the intellectual and educational qualifications for office. Moral fitness is not so 
 easily demonstrable; "but the man who is mentally qualified has taken a long 
 step toward the complete qualification for office which the public welfare requires." 
 
 " Grave, taciturn, almost saturnine, he could light up with a play of wit and 
 fancy which made him the life of the social circle. At such times his conversation 
 was delightful and instructive. He drew from his memory, or rather there came 
 welling up f;om his memory, anecdote, illustration, history, poetry, romance, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 215 
 
 philosophy. Whatever subject was started, he had read something upon it that was 
 worth reading, and what he had read he did not forget. To verify a quotation, 
 or to fix a date, he was as good as a dictionary. Fie kept up to the last his 
 familiarity with the Greek and Latin classics, and he devoured contemporaneous 
 literature with an appetite that was ravenous." " He could devour the contents of 
 a book while other men were considering the question of reading it. He was a 
 judicious reader, knowing intuitively the portions to pass over unread — for all books 
 are not to be all read. An examination of his library, would disclose books in every 
 department of science, of history, of literature ; books not kept for ornament, but 
 showing hard marks of use." Phcenixtana, or The Widow Bedott Papers he enjoyed 
 with keen relish and refreshment. With Roman law he was perfectly familiar, 
 spoke enthusiastically of the marvellous recovery of the manuscript of Gaius, and of 
 the remarkable similarity of its language to that of the Institutes of Justinian, of 
 which Tribonian had been supposed to be the author. But Mr. Jenckes was no 
 mere pedant, or collector of other men's sayings. Judge Bradley says that his 
 "great mental characteristic was the creative power, the imagination, the power 
 that bodies forth in the mind's eye shapes and forms of its own creation, as if they 
 were real." In this, as in other respects, he resembled Lord Bacon, of whom it is 
 said, " that he had the mightiest imagination that ever bowed its neck to the yoke 
 of the human reason." 
 
 He was also remarkable for his love of nature : knew the notes and habits of 
 the birds, had an intimate acquaintance with every lowly plant, and a special friend- 
 ship with each nobler tree, and knew where to look for the fringed gentian, or 
 other shy flower. In conversation with young people who were good listeners, he 
 was a charming companion, and if he commenced talking upon any subject — 
 Napoleon Bonaparte and his campaigns, for instance — would hold them spell-bound, 
 enchanted by his anecdotes and personal reminiscences. With his pen he was quite 
 as ready as with his voice, wrote with great facility, and with an accuracy that was as 
 remarkable as its rapidity. Unlike most good writers, his manuscript was remarkably 
 free from erasures and emendations, and he did not disdain a legible penmanship. In 
 his own judgment he had the utmost confidence, and was wholly immovable by 
 ignorant popular clamor. The public opinion of his State was decidedly opposed 
 to the Bankrupt law, of which he was the author, and poured in remonstrances 
 against its enactment. But he steadfastly carried it through, being satisfied that the 
 bill was based on sound principles, that it was a necessary part of a commercial 
 system, and that it would vindicate itself in practice. " Long afterward he had the 
 satisfaction of receiving as earnest remonstrances from the same quarter against the 
 propositions to repeal the law." 
 
2i6 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 His essentially poetic temperament inclined him to the credulous reception of 
 anything new and strange, and suggestive "of the poetic and unaccustomed powers 
 of nature." Clairvoyance was something to which, on one occasion at least, he gave 
 entire credence. His self-control was singular. He never lost command of his 
 temper, nor allowed irritable words to escape his lips. Though often traduced 
 himself, he never stooped to the .detraction of others. His courage was of the 
 heroic stamp, which never counts adverse odds, or shrinks from meeting an enemy 
 upon his own ground. If, in any particular, he failed to exhibit a perfectly sym- 
 metrical character, it was in that of judgment; not that it was deficient in quality, 
 but that it was sometimes overmastered by his other powers, which led him, the 
 victim of his own ingenuity, " into sophistries which he would have detected at 
 once in another, and which only his own imagination, not another's, could have 
 imposed upon him." 
 
 As a lawyer, Mr. Jenckes, according to the testimony of his shrewdest and most 
 experienced clients, was capable of more prolonged, continuous, and effective mental 
 labor than any other man they knew. His brain was not only strong but tough, 
 and withstood the strain of the most troublesome and complex litigation. He 
 seemed to grasp the deepest questions as though it were given to him by genius. 
 He seemed to divide up, separate, and split apart the nicest questions, as though he 
 were born a metaphysician and a lawyer. " Only mention the principle, give him 
 the case that you wished him to resolve, and in an incredibly short time he would 
 carry you over the whole field, and tell you where that question had been discussed 
 in Queen's Bench in England, in New York, in Massachusetts, or before the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, with a facility, with a clearness, with a power 
 so great" that all v\?ho heard were amazed at his attainments. No legal antagonist 
 ever came into conflict with him without being impressed by his power and strategic 
 skill. " It was no security against apprehension that one had the stronger side of the 
 cause. His fertile mind was constantly on the alert to discover the most vulnerable 
 point of attack." His opponents were only safe when they had " the final judgment 
 of the court of last resort. All his victories were fairly won by the legitimate 
 weapons of the law. He was the most tenacious and persistent of men in holding 
 to, and pursuing, every legal advantage, but he never stooped to deception or artifice 
 to carry his point." Chief Justice Durfee said : " His knowledge of the law, though 
 it may not have been systematically amassed, was of immense range and singular 
 accuracy. I do not think there was any legal problem too intricate for his analysis, 
 any refinement too subtle for his apprehension, any doctrine too repulsive for his 
 study, or any inquiry too recondite for his indefatigable research. He was equally at 
 home in the black-letter folios and in the most recent reports. . . . When I 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 217 
 
 came upon the bench there was a cause awaiting decision in which the late Judge 
 Curtis was counsel against him. It involved a valuable water privilege, and called for 
 a discussion not only of voluminous masses of contradictory testimony, but also of 
 complicated theories and hypotheses in hydraulics and mechanical engineering. I did 
 not hear the viva voce discussion, but judging from the written and printed record 
 which was laid before me, I think it not too much to say, that in the minute 
 mastery of facts and figures, in the easy handling of scientific and mathematical 
 proofs, and in the logical disposition and development of the argument as well, he 
 was a match, if not more than a match, for his more famous antagonist." The 
 resolutions of the Providence County Bar, adopted unanimously by that body after 
 his decease, exhibit the deliberate estimation in which he was held by his professional 
 brethren. They say : 
 
 "That it was due to no adventitious circumstance that Mr. Jenckes, on entering 
 his profession, so early took a position in the front rank. 
 
 " While possessing uncommon natural gifts, among them great powers of percep- 
 tion and a most retentive memory, he nevertheless had laid broad and deep the 
 foundations of his knowledge by the severest study of metaphysical and the exact 
 sciences, of history, and the literature of ancient and modern times. 
 
 " With a mind thus disciplined and enriched, with habits of thought thus formed, 
 he was enabled to enter immediately upon those intellectual contests with the 
 leading members of the bar in this and other portions of the country, in which 
 he displayed a degree of self-possession, a wealth of learning, adroitness, and logical 
 power, that commanded universal admiration. During the whole of his professional 
 life, covering a third of a century, even through the months of his last painful 
 illness, he continued that deep and thorough study of the law which marked the 
 preparation for his profession ; thus illustrating, by his own example, his faith in 
 the "adage often quoted by him, that ' there is no royal road to learning.' " 
 
 The domestic life of Mr. Jenckes was touchingly beautiful. His family affections 
 were remarkably strong. His were the filial attentions to a mother's comfort and 
 wishes that the poet Dana calls " the native courtesies of a feeling mind, showing 
 themselves, amid stern virtues and masculine energies, like gleams of light on points 
 of rocks." To his young daughters he was the ideal of nobleness and excellence. 
 " The book or poem which he praised was read or committed to memory ; a word 
 of approbation from him called up a blush of pleasure. His return after an absence 
 was the signal for rejoicing, and his wish when it could be ascertained was law, 
 and the law was delight, as it was to the Psalmist." When his beautiful and 
 beloved daughter, Ida, was taken away from him by death, he said : 
 
 " To me the loss is greater than it can be to all others. She was an emana- 
 
2i8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 tion from myself, where all that was rude became beautiful ; all that was hard, 
 tender ; all that was harsh and severe, gentle ; and all that was stern and rough 
 became sweetness and elegance. She had so interfused herself with my life, and 
 she was so healthy and pure, that I never thought of existing without her. I could 
 resign her to become the joy, the light, the comfort of some brave man's home - 
 but I had never thought of having her torn from me — thus. Oh, how much light 
 has departed from my house ! " 
 
 Greatness, and unusual worldly success, did not guarantee him any more than 
 millions of obscure men from the keenest sufferings incident to human life. Together 
 with exhausting physical and intellectual toils, they undermined a constitution of 
 great natural vigor, and assisted the painful and complicated disease under which he 
 labored, to bring his brilliant and useful life to a somewhat premature close. He 
 died at his residence in Cumberland, on the 4th of November, 1875, universally 
 admired and regretted. 
 
 "TJTk^EWIS, HENRY G., of New Haven, Conn., was born in the town of Corn- 
 
 1^\ wall, in Litchfield County, Conn., on the 9th day of September, 1820. He 
 
 ftJI^ was the youngest of five sons and two daughters — children of the late 
 
 1 William Lewis and his wife, Sarah A. Calhoun, for many years prominent 
 
 residents of Cornwall, as afterward of the city of New Haven. 
 
 In 1826 his parents removed from Cornwall to the town of Newington, im 
 Hartford County, where they resided for about two years. They then went to 
 Meriden, in New Haven County, where they remained until 1832, at which time 
 they came to New Haven with a view to making this city their permanent place 
 of residence. Here the father and most of the elder sons established themselves in 
 business, and soon became actively and prominently identified with the material 
 interests and prosperity of the city. 
 
 At this time young Lewis, who had previously attended the common or public- 
 schools only, became a pupil of the celebrated Lancasterian, now the public Highi 
 School of New Haven, which he attended ,for some four or five years under the 
 veteran teacher of that institution, making such progress in his studies as to render 
 the higher instruction of the private schools of the city thereafter a necessity. 
 
mwu, -^/. "Vr 
 
 'UZJ 
 
 Mi'iir,]- jLirni ri.lili. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 219 
 
 In 1841 he entered the Yale Law School, at that time under an able corps 
 of instructors, with the late Judges Daggett and Hitchcock at its head. He gradu- 
 ated in due course from this department of Yale College in 1844, receiving the 
 degree of Bachelor of Laws. While connected with the Law School he prosecuted 
 his studies in the law-office of the late Judge E. K. Foster, whose memory is as 
 gratefully cherished by the public as by the bar of New Haven County. 
 
 Immediately after his admission to the bar he was elected the acting grand 
 juror or prosecuting attorney for the town of New Haven, which office he continued 
 to. hold until he was appointed to the more important and responsible position of 
 clerk of the County and Superior Courts, and of the Supreme Court of Errors, in 
 1847. This position he held for three years and upward, at the same time acting 
 as clerk of the City Court, as well as the Court of Probate during the incum- 
 bency of the Hon. E. K. Foster as judge. And the writer deems it not improper 
 to state, in this connection, as evidence of the superior qualifications of Mr. Lewis 
 for the position he then held, that during his clerkship, especially in the higher 
 courts, many important and desirable improvements were suggested and made by 
 him in the matter of making up and keeping the records and files of the courts, 
 such as the judges and bar readily acquiesced in, thereby causing greater uniformity 
 and much saving of time in the examination of records and the transaction of 
 business before the courts. He was the first to cause the records of all cases 
 taken to the Supreme Court of Errors to be made up in printed form ; and so 
 palpable were the advantages of this method over the old one of interminable 
 manuscript copies as immediately to cause an order of the court that thereafter 
 they would hear no cases, in any county of the State, unless presented in a like 
 convenient form. 
 
 But finding the position of clerk of the courts and the routine duties of the law- 
 office more irksome in their confinement than he had expected, and convinced that 
 a life of business activity would prove more congenial to his habits as well as 
 tastes, he determined on a change of vocation as early as 1S53. At this time the 
 New Haven Wheel Company, an organization formed under the laws of the State, 
 had been in operation some six or seven years, and such was the prejudice against 
 machine-made wheels that little progress had been made in the business, while it 
 had changed hands several times. A few of the leading business men connected 
 with the company, however, had become satisfied that machine-made wheels were 
 superior to any that could be made by hand, and at once cast about them for a 
 competent and thorough business manager of the concern. They were not long in 
 finding their man for the place. The position was tendered to Mr. Lewis, and he at 
 once accepted it. He was elected secretary and treasurer of the company, and 
 
i2o BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 entered upon the duties of these positions, taking the chief management and super- 
 vision of the works into his own hands. Such was the enthusiasm and vigor he 
 brought into the concern that its business was rapidly increased, and handsome 
 dividends commenced to accrue to the owners. 
 
 The unexpected panic of 1859, however, so soon followed by the late civil war, 
 produced a sudden revulsion in their business, and the war itself subjected them to 
 enormous losses, especially in the case of their Southern customers, with whom they 
 were largely dealing at the time, while nothing but the certainty that the war must 
 ultimately terminate encouraged them to go forward in their undertaking. Their 
 business was accordingly continued, in a more or less languishing condition, until 
 peace was declared in the spring of 1865, when important changes were made in the 
 ownership of the company. Most of the old stockholders were bought out by Messrs. 
 Henry G. Lewis and Edward E. Bradley. Mr. Lewis was elected president, and 
 Edward E. Bradley secretary and treasurer. The company now entered upon a new 
 lease of life, and with a new career of prosperity. From manufacturing twenty-five 
 sets of wheels a week before the war, the number had increased to fifty sets, and 
 from that rapidly rose to two hundred, besides quantities of parts furnished to the 
 carriage-makers, among whom a demand had sprung up for this class of work. 
 
 This increase of business steadily continued down to September, 1874, when 
 at least two thirds of their extensive works was destroyed by fire, entaihng a loss 
 upon the company of about $200,000, and seriously interrupting their operations 
 for the time being. But such was the energy and recuperative force of the company 
 under its new organization and management, that within eighty days from the date of 
 the fire, the present large and extensive buildings were erected in place of the old 
 ones, and were ready to receive their new Harris-Corliss engine, of two hundred 
 horse power, and the other machinery of this mammoth establishment. 
 
 With the new and increased facilities which they now enjoyed, and the wide 
 reputation they had achieved for superior work, they at once commenced turning 
 out four hundred sets of wheels a week, besides furnishing a much larger variety 
 of parts to the carriage-makers of the country. New markets sprang up and old 
 ones were extended, so that now their goods are sold in every section of the United 
 States, besides finding their way to all parts of Europe, to Australia, South America, 
 Mexico, the West Indies, Canada, and several other foreign countries. No other 
 concern of its kind in the world is so widely and favorably known, or has the 
 reputation of manufacturing a superior class of work. The force employed is full 
 two hundred hands, each part having to pass through many processes before appear- 
 ing: in the finished wheel. 
 
 To Mr. Lewis the company is largely indebted for the wide reputation it 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 221 
 
 enjoys throughout this country as well as abroad. It was through his influence 
 and active exertions that the largest space was allotted to his company, and much 
 the most valuable exhibit in the wheel line made by them, at the Centennial 
 Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, at which time they received the highest award 
 in their department of the exhibition; while at the Paris Exposition, in 1878, their 
 display was so meritonous as to gain for them a silver medal and diploma. Mr. 
 Lewis is still the president of the company, although actively engaged in other 
 manufacturing enterprises. 
 
 In 1866-7 he was elected a member of the Court of Common Council of New 
 Haven, and not only took an active and leading part in the debates of that body, 
 but a deep and zealous interest in all matters pertaining to the growth, prosperity, 
 and general welfare of the city. His duties as a member of the Common Council 
 were fearlessly discharged, no measure receiving his support which did not first 
 commend itself to his judgment. He has manifested, however, little ambition for 
 political place and preferment, evidently caring more for success in business enter- 
 prises than in the arena of politics. He had frequently been requested by his 
 many friends in New Haven to allow his name to be used as a candidate to 
 represent both the town and Senatorial District in the General Assembly of the 
 State, but with one exception invariably refused his assent. In 1868, however, 
 when it came desirable for New Haven and the several towns along the Air 
 Line and Shore Line Railroads to obtain an act of the Legislature authorizing these 
 roads to construct iron bridges across the Connecticut River at Middletown and Say- 
 brook, he yielded to the persuasion of his fellow-townsmen, became a candidate for 
 Representative, and was elected. He had hardly entered the House before the great 
 struggle that had already become memorable in the history of the State was precipi- 
 tated upon that body. For nearly twenty years Hartford had fought the project of 
 bridging that river, or otherwise obstructing its open channel to the sea, and had 
 uniformly borne away the palm of victory. But she was now to meet one armed 
 with facts, figures, and precedents, and eager to enter the lists against the pretentious 
 claims of navigable streams to the exclusive right of commeicial highway in an age 
 of diversified transport, with thousands of persons and millions of tons of freight 
 traversing the continent by rail to a tithe of that number by ordinary river con- 
 veyance. Mr. Lewis bore a conspicuous and leading part in the debates that fol- 
 lowed, and with a few determined followers and influential friends, all catching more or 
 less of his enthusiasm and indomitable pluck in a hand-to-hand encounter, "the an- 
 cient and imprescriptible rights" of Hartford to river navigation dropped out of the 
 category of annual legislative contests in this State. As the smoke of battle cleared 
 away, it vyas found that the two bridges in question had been chartered by nearly 
 a two thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature. 
 
223 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 As chairman, on the part of the House, of the Committee on Fisheries, during 
 the same session of the Legislature, Mr. Lewis took an active and prominent part 
 in the question of fish culture, strongly advocating the laws then passed for stocking 
 the Connecticut River with shad and salmon, and the numerous lakes and streams of 
 the State with fish adapted to their respective waters. The several reports of the 
 fish commissioners of the State, since made, fully attest the advantages and bene- 
 ficial effect of this legislation. 
 
 Mr. Lewis was first elected Mayor of New Haven in 1870, at the time the 
 new city charter, extending the office from one to two years, went into operation. 
 His eminent fitness for the position would have secured his nomination the year 
 previously, but his pressing business engagements led him peremptorily to decline the 
 proffered honor. The next year, however, the demand for his nomination became 
 more urgent and pressing, owing to the contemplated changes in the city govern- 
 ment and the need of a thorough and competent business man in the position to 
 carry the new and somewhat complicated working machinery of the charter into 
 effective operation. Yielding to strong personal appeals, he accepted the nomination, 
 and was elected. Under the charter, his first term of office was to extend from 
 the first day of June, 1870, to the first day of January, 1873, in order that the 
 official year might thereafter commence in January instead of June, as had previously 
 been the case under the old charter. He was twice re-elected for terms of 'two 
 years each, thereby holding the office from June, 1870, to January, 1877 — a longer 
 period than any predecessor ever elected to that office. 
 
 The first charter of the city was granted in 1 784, and it is not saying too 
 much that during Mayor Lewis's incumbency of the office a greater number of per- 
 manent city improvements were inaugurated and carried forward on a systematic plan 
 —one having reference to the future necessities and demands of the city— than were 
 ever projected or undertaken by any ten predecessors of his in the office. 
 
 During his first term of two years and seven months, he not only discharged 
 his official duties as Mayor and president of the Board of Aldermen, but acted as 
 president of the boards of Road, Police, and Fire Commissioners, thus coming in 
 contact with, and making his influence felt in, every department of the city gov- 
 ernment. The result was no doubt greatly beneficial at the time, as it was 
 impossible for the city officials in these several departments to come in contact 
 with him without sharing in the enthusiasm with which he entered upon the public 
 improvements he had projected as the distinctive work of his administration. 
 
 His greatest work, and that which most sharply emphasizes the strength and 
 sagacity of his character as an administrative officer, was the establishment of a 
 complete and perfect system of sewerage for the entire corporate limits of the city. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA . 223 
 
 This was, in his judgment, the one imperative need of New Haven at the time he 
 entered upon the duties of his office. The previous sewerage of the city was utterly 
 without plan or system, and was as imperfect as notoriously inadequate. Malarial 
 diseases were steadily, yet stealthily, making their way from the unsevvered districts 
 into the very heart of the city, and all agreed that something should be done to 
 lessen the annual death-rate among our people. In this emergency. Mayor Lewis 
 was fortunate in securing the services of Mr. E. S. Chesbrough, the eminent sewerage 
 engineer of Chicago, under whose supervisional direction the entire city was surveyed 
 and mapped out into sewerage districts by a competent corps of engineers, with a 
 view to providing a system of perfect and rapid drainage, extending throngh every 
 existing and prospective street and avenue within the territorial limits of New 
 Haven. 
 
 The final report of Engineer Chesbrough, made to the Mayor, December 30th, 
 1872, detailing the system established for New Haven, is considered by experts, and 
 those best conpetent to judge, the ablest paper on district sewerage yet given to 
 the public ; and distinguished sanitarians who have examined the system, pronounce 
 it the best in this country. And the improved sanitary condition of our city since 
 its adoption, and the vigorous prosecution of the work under it, fully justify the 
 conclusion reached by Mayor Lewis in his first inaugural address to the Court of 
 Common Council, delivered on the ist day of June, 1870. In the last annual 
 report of Dr. C. W. Chamberlain, secretary of the State Board of Health, that dfficer, 
 speaking of the improved sanitary condition of our city, says: "New Haven now, 
 with its almost perfect sanitary organization, has the lowest death-rate of any 
 seaport town of its size in the world." How largely our people are indebted to 
 Mayor Lewis for this official announcement and the material prosperity it is certain 
 to bring us, the present generation may not fully determine, but the future student 
 of our city annals will most assuredly do so. 
 
 As president of the Board of Road Commissioners, Mayor Lewis was untiring 
 in his efforts to improve the principal streets and thoroughfares of the city, causing 
 them to be widened, straightened, and extended, as well as graded and paved, wherever 
 the public health and business necessities demanded. Sidewalks were repaired and 
 relaid, and new ones constructed and curbed, in all directions, imparting a thrifty and 
 cleanly appearance to the principal streets and avenues of the city. 
 
 For the better protection of life and property, the police and fire departments 
 were constant sources of anxiety and watchfulness on his part, and whenever, in his 
 judgment, an increased force was required to meet these ends, he was prompt to 
 recommend it. And the same was true as to the enlargement of old buildings 
 and the erection of new ones, for both the police and fire departments, the chief 
 
224 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 conditions imposed by him being that the enlargements made and the new build- 
 ings erected should be adequate to the requirements of the force, and at the same 
 time creditable, in plan and architectural design, to the city. And certainly these 
 conditions were rigidly complied with in the erection of our new Police Building, 
 one of the finest structures of its kind in the country. 
 
 During his mayorship, and mainly through his recommendation and efforts, the 
 first regular Board of Health in the State was established in 1872, the Legislature 
 of that year passing an act in amendment of the city charter providing for such 
 a board, with ample powers and exclusive jurisdiction over the health and sanitary 
 condition of the entire town and harbor of New Haven. This measure was an 
 important and most timely one, and our city Board of Health is pronounced one 
 of the most efficient in the country. 
 
 It was also on the recommendation of Mayor Lewis that a joint standing 
 committee was appointed by the Court of Common Council on Harbor Improve- 
 ments, in 1872. The object of recommending this committee, of which he was 
 made chairman, was to obtain an act from the Legislature that year for the 
 organization of a board of harbor commissioners, with ample powers for the protec- 
 tion and improvement of our harbor. This committee was also especially instructed 
 to confer with the Coast Survey authorities in Washington, with a view to obtain- 
 ing a resurvey of the harbor. An application was accordingly made to the Superin- 
 tendent of the Coast Survey by this committee, the same heard and granted, and 
 the necessary arrangements made for the commencement of the work. Assistant 
 Superintendent R. M. Bache was assigned to superintend the survey, the same to be 
 done at the joint expense of the city and the Federal Government. This survey 
 was most minute and accurate^ in its details, and comprised not only the harbor but 
 the adjacent shores and navigable streams, as shown upon a series of thirteen elegantly 
 executed maps furnished by the corps of engineers in charge of the work. The 
 same committee, in furtherance of the objects of their appointment, made applica- 
 tion to Congress for an appropriation to widen and deepen the channels of the 
 harbor, and also construct a proper breakwater near its entrance, the Chamber of 
 Commerce and many prominent citizens actively co-operating with them for the 
 attainment of these ends. The result was that a handsome appropriation was 
 obtained and judiciously expended in furtherance of the harbor improvements sought 
 to be ultimately obtained. 
 
 In addition to the several improvements we have herein enumerated. Mayor 
 Lewis was indefatigable in his eiforts to carry out others of more or less impor- 
 tance to the city, such as the construction of a first-class iron brido-e over the 
 Quinnipiac River; a new survey of the city, showing every street, street line, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 225 
 
 grade; the location of every sewer, its manholes and connections; every fire hydrant 
 and reservoir; every gas and water main, and the exact size, ground plan, and 
 location of every building, and structure in the city up to July 4th, 1876, besides 
 many other improvements we have not the space to enumerate. During his several 
 terms of office, not less than twenty-four miles of sewers were laid, in accordance 
 with the new system of drainage adopted, while some nine miles of streets were 
 paved on the Telford plan. Indeed, there has been no public enterprise of any 
 magnitude or importance entered upon in this city for the last thirty-five years which 
 does not owe its origin in part to his efforts. 
 
 He was among the foremost of our citizens to advocate and assist in organi- 
 zation and construction of the gas and water companies of the city, in both of 
 which he was for many years a director. He strongly favored, and by his eiforts 
 largely aided, in the successful construction of the Shore Line Railroad to New 
 London ; the Air Line road to Willimantic, and the New Haven and Derby Rail- 
 road. None of these enterprises were effected without the most persistent efforts 
 on the part of their friends and projectors — the two former having provoked, in 
 the Legislature of the State, a most determined, and bitter struggle for years between 
 the two rival cities of Connecticut. 
 
 To secure the success of these several enterprises, so important to the trade, 
 commerce, and material growth and welfare of New Haven, no man labored more 
 zealously than Mr. Lewis. He also advocated, and, with his associates, was successful 
 in procuring the charter of the New England and Erie Railroad in Connecticut, 
 and the Highland Suspension Bridge over the Hudson River in New York, and 
 was a corporator and director in each company, the object being to connect New 
 Haven, by the Derby Railroad, with the coal-fields of Pennsylvania and the railroads 
 of the West — a work yet to be consummated. 
 
 While Mayor, the hospitalities of the city were extended to many distinguished 
 visitors, including the President and Vice-President of the United States ; the 
 General, Lieutenant-General, and other noted army officers ; the Governors of the New 
 England and adjoining States ; Kalakaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, and his 
 suite, and other personages of more or less note. On these occasions the hospitality 
 and dignity of the city were fitly represented by his presence, and the courtesies 
 shown. In his public receptions to these distinguished guests, he was uniformly 
 felicitious and happy in the remarks made by him, as well as in the attentions 
 bestowed. 
 
 In response to the calls for aid to those suffering from disaster or pestilence, 
 he was ever foremost and successful in urging his fellow-citizens to respond, as 
 witnessed by the contributions sent to the sufferers from fire in Chicago, Wisconsin, 
 IS 
 
226 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 and Michigan ; to those by flood from the Mill River disaster in Massachusetts, and 
 to the sufferers from yellow fever in the South. The several sums thus contributed 
 during his terms of office amounted to more than $100,000. 
 
 An earnest and active Whig in early life, occupying at one time the chairman- 
 ship of its State Central Committee, he remained true to that honored political 
 organization until its final dissolution, even leading its " forlorn hope" of revival in 
 the nomination of Bell and Everett in i860. He soon afterward allied himself 
 with the Democratic party, taking at once a prominent and influential position in 
 its ranks, and assisting to fight some of the sharpest and most stoutly contested 
 pohtical battles ever witnessed in the State. 
 
 He was married, October 5th, 1858, to Julia W. Coley, daughter of the late 
 John H. and Matilda Beach Coley ; three children are the issue of this marriage : 
 William Kirkland, born July 28th, i860; Matilda Coley, born November ist, i86r, 
 and Josephine Miles, born March loth, 1865 — two of whom only survive, the oldest 
 dying March 31st, 1864. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^ D I A . 227 
 
 ^ARSONS, USHER, M.D., of Providence, R. I. Born in Alfred, Maine, August 
 
 i*^ iSth, 1788. He was the youngest of nine children, of whom William and 
 
 Abigail Frost (Blunt) Parsons were the parents. His father was a farmer, and 
 
 ^ a lineal descendant of Joseph Parsons, who arrived in this country from 
 England in 1635, and settled first at Springfield, and afterward at Northampton, 
 Mass. His eldest son, Joseph, was a prominent citizen and trader in the latter 
 place, and his eldest son, Joseph (third), graduated at Harvard College in 1697. 
 Joseph Parsons (fourth) was the eldest son of Joseph Parsons (third), graduated in 
 1720, and was minister at Bradford, Mass., from 1726 to his death in 1765. He 
 was the father of six sons, of whom William, the fifth, was born at Bradford in 
 1743, and ultimately settled in Alfred, York County, Maine, where he died, August 
 4th, 1826. William Parsons married Abigail Frost Blunt, daughter of Rev. John 
 Blunt, of Newcastle, N. H. Mr. Blunt's wife was the daughter of the Hon. John 
 Frost, and of his wife Mary, who was the sister of Sir William Pepperell. 
 
 The boyhood of Usher Parsons was spent in his native neighborhood, where he 
 attended the village school in winter, and worked on his father's farm in summer. 
 In May, 1800, he was sent to Berwick Academy, which he attended for about a 
 year. Afterward he was employed as clerk in retail stores at Portland and Wells, 
 now Kennebunk. On May 6th, 1807, he began the study of medicine in the office 
 of Dr. Abiel Hall, of Alfred. There he saw a little practice, studied the anatomy 
 of the human frame, and read Cullens First Lines, and the works of Darwin and 
 Brown. His progress, however, was seriously retarded by the necessity of helping on 
 the paternal farm, and of teaching school in Alfred and adjacent towns. In the 
 autumn of 1809 he had already attended a course of anatomical lectures delivered 
 in Fryeburg, Maine, by an educated and enthusiastic Scotch physician — Dr. Alexander 
 Ramsay. Inspired by the lecturer, young Parsons determined to obtain the degree 
 of A.M. and M.D., and to become a teacher of anatomy. Latin and Greek were 
 diligently studied, but the prospect of obtaining a collegiate education outside the 
 walls of college seemed too distant to allow him to carry out all his ambitious plans. 
 He therefore resolved to resume his medic.il studies, and afterward to complete the clas- 
 sical as time and opportunity afforded. In July, 181 1, he went to Boston, boarded 
 with his brother-in-law. General Samuel Leighton, then representative in the General 
 Court from Elliot, at the " Market Tavern," and put himself under the instructions 
 of the eminent surgeon, Dr. John Warren, brother of General Warren, who fell on 
 Bunker Hill, and father of Dr. John Collins Warren. His attainments were sufficiently 
 ample by the 7th of February, 18 12, to warrant the censors of the Massachusetts 
 Medical Society in approving and licensing him as " a practitioner in medicine." 
 War with England was impending, and offered opportunities of professional 
 
228 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 service to young medical men. His first attempts to obtain a commission were 
 discouragingly unsuccessful, but at length he obtained one, as surgeon's mate in the 
 navy, by the friendly aid of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, member of Congress from New 
 Hampshire. It was dated July 6th, 1812. An order from the Navy Department to 
 report for duty on board the corvette John Adams, at New York, followed soon 
 after. In September, in common with the officers and most of the men on board 
 that vessel, he volunteered to enter an expedition under Commodore Isaac Chauncey. 
 The exact nature of the service required was unknown to most of them, although 
 it was conjectured to be frontier duty on the great lakes. The troops set out from 
 Brooklyn Navy Yard in sloops for Albany on the 24th of September, reached that 
 city on the 29th, and travelled thence to Buffalo in wagons, and on foot, arriving 
 at their destination on the 17th of October. Through the following winter and 
 spring, 181 2-1 3, he was in charge of the hospital at Black Rock, near Buffalo, and 
 was called upon to contend with an epidemic pleuro-pneumoni'a, in addition to the 
 general list of wounds and diseases. The failure of an attempt to storm a British 
 battery on the Canada side of the Niagara River added much to his surgical labors, 
 as the wounded were put under his care. In May, 1813, the American operations 
 were more successful, and issued in the capture of the entire Niagara frontier. On 
 the 28th of that month Dr. Parsons and about twenty others crossed the river, 
 received the surrender of Fort Erie, and were treated with great hospitality by the 
 remaining inmates. 
 
 In August, 18 1 3, he sailed with Commodore Perry's little squadron from Black 
 Rock to Sandusky, and anchored in the islands of* Put-in-Bay. Himself, the other 
 two surgeons, the Commodore, more than half the officers, and many of the men, 
 were ill of bilious remittent fever.- "More than one hundred lay sick without any 
 medical aid." Dr. Parsons himself "never was so much emaciated." In this sadly 
 weakened condition they were obliged to face the somewhat superior force of the 
 enemy. In the severe battle that followed, on Friday, September loth, the flagship 
 Lawrence received a most destructive fire from the British squadron, and by 
 '2:30 P.M., "when not another gun could be worked, or fired, . . . Captain Perrv 
 hauled dow^n the fighting fiag, which bore this motto, Doni give np the ship, repaired 
 on board the Niagara, and there raised it again. In ten minutes after," wrote Dr. 
 Parsons in his private diary at the time, " we struck to the enemy. Captain Periy 
 made all sail with the Niagara, which hitherto had kept out of the action, and in 
 fifteen minutes passed in among the British squadron, having the Detroit, Queen 
 Charlotte, and Lady Prevost on the starboard side, and the Hunter on the larboard 
 side, and silenced them all, and ten minutes before three they hauled down their 
 colors. Two small vessels attempted to escap§, but, being overhauled, struck a few 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 229 
 
 minutes after three." Eighty, out of a hundred and fifty men, composing the 
 Lawrence's crew, were killed and wounded. Dr. Parsons had some narrow escapes 
 during the action. Five cannon-balls passed through the room in which he was 
 attending to the wounded, and two of the patients whose wounds he had dressed 
 were killed before the close of the action. As Drs. Ilorseley and Barton, the other 
 surgeons, were disabled, the entire care of the sick and wounded devolved upon 
 him. After the engagement, these, together with many of the British prisoners, 
 were conducted to Erie and placed in a hospital, of which Dr. Parsons remained 
 in charged for nine months. In common with the other commissioned officers of 
 the fleet, he received the silver medal voted by Congress, and also his share of 
 prize-money, which he used to pay off his educational debts. Commodore Perry 
 also became his warm friend, and the foundation of future professional eminence 
 was broadly and deeply laid. 
 
 For about a month in 1814, Dr. Parsons served as surgeon of the Seventeenth 
 Pennsylvania Militia, then on duty at Erie; on the 15th of April he was promoted 
 to the rank of surgeon, and in June took part in the unsuccessful attack on Fort 
 Mackinac ; in December he accepted the position of surgeon in the new frigate 
 Java, under Perry, with whom he served till the close of 18 16. On the 4th of 
 February, in the Straits of Gibraltar, he suffered the fracture of the right knee-pan, 
 while in discharge of professional duty. He visited Gibraltar, Malaga, Port Mahon, 
 on the Island of Minorca, Algiers, Tunis, and the ruins of Carthage, Tripoli, 
 Messina, Palermo, and Naples. While at the latter place he repeatedly examined the 
 ruins of Ilerculaneum and Pompeii. In January, 1817, the Java returned to the 
 United States, bearing a new treaty with Algiers, and on the 3d of March reached 
 Newport. From that place Dr. Parsons went to Providence, carrying with him 
 letters of introduction from his gallant commodore, and contemplating civil practice in 
 that city. In November, he attended lectures at the medical school in Boston, and 
 in March, 181 8, received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Harvard University. 
 In the same year he published a " Surgical Account of the Naval Battle on Lake 
 Erie," in the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery ; and also joined the 
 Massachusetts Medical Society. 
 
 In July, 1818, he sailed from Boston as surgeon of the frigate Guerriere, Cap- 
 tain Thomas Macdonough, to St. Petersburg; from thence to different ports on the 
 Mediterranean, where he greatly enlarged the sum of his astronomical and medical 
 knowledge. On July 15th, 18 19, at Gibraltar, he received permission from Commo- 
 dore Charles Stewart " to return to America, or make a trial of the air of the 
 north of Europe," on account of ill-health. Leaving Gibraltar on the 20th, he 
 visited Leghorn, Pisa, Lucca, and Florence successively, and took great delight in the 
 
230 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 anatomical preparations in wax that he examined in the latter city. From Florence 
 he went to Rome, and inspected the hospitals, with other objects of interest, in the 
 ancient capital of the Cocsars. On the 29th of September he arrived in Paris, and 
 spent some months there, attending the lectures of Dupuytren, Larrey, and others on 
 surgery, and of Gay Lussac, and other professors, on chemistry. He also made the 
 acquaintance of Cuvier. Many medical books and instruments were added to his 
 stores in Paris, and among them Laennec's treatise on auscultation, with a stetho- 
 scope of the original pattern, now a curiosity of medical history, and certified to 
 have been "examined and used by Laenncc." With Professor Richard Owen, the 
 eminent British comparative anatomist, he also formed an intimate friendship. From 
 Paris he repaired to London, in December, became acquainted with Sir Astley 
 Cooper, Abernethy, and other distinguished surgeons and savans, and made plans 
 for the formation of a museum of comparative anatomy. On the 28th he sailed 
 from Liverpool, reached Boston early in 1820, and in May of that year was 
 ordered to service at the marine barracks in Charlestown. 
 
 Dr. Parsons accepted the chair of anatomy and surgery in Darmouth College 
 in August, 1820, contributed to the creation of a museum of human and compara- 
 tive anatomy, and lectured there for about twelve months. He also published the 
 Sailor s Physician, a medicdl guide for use on merchant vessels, which was extensively 
 sold, and, under the changed title of Physician for Ships, passed through five con- 
 secutive editions, revised and improved — the last of them being issued in 1867. In 
 December, 1820, he visited the medical schools of New York, Philadelphia, and 
 Baltimore, and heard lectures from the principal professors, in connection with them 
 ■ — still intending to prepare himself for anatomical teaching. In April, 1822, Dr. 
 Parsons settled in Providence, and for a while was partner in medical practice with 
 Dr. Levi Wheaton. On the 23d of September he married Mary Jackson, daughter 
 of Rev. Ab^el Holmes, D.D., of Cambridge, Mass., and author of the Annals of 
 America. Mrs. Parsons died June 14th, 1825, leaving an only son. In April, 
 1823, Dr. Parsons resigned his commission in the navy. In 1822 he was appointed 
 Professor of J Anatomy and Surgery in Brown University, and in 1826 published an 
 introductory lecture on anatomy and physiology, as branches of general education. 
 His connection with Brown was necessarily severed by President Wayland's wise 
 policy of obliging all the professors to devote themselves exclusively to collegiate 
 duties. In 1831 he published a volume on the Art of Making Anatomical Prepa- 
 rations. 
 
 Dr. Parsons, writes his biographer, Charles W. Parsons, "rose gradually to a 
 very prominent rank in his profession. Besides his varied opportunities, which brought 
 him to the beginning of civil practice with more than usual experience and resources 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LOPJED I A . 231 
 
 he had many quahties of body and mind that fitted him for medical life. . . . 
 His early training in naval service, and the predominance of the reflective powers fitted 
 him rather for the office of consulting physician, and for cases of exceptional diffi- 
 culty, than for the ordinary run of daily medical practice. . . . As consulting 
 physician and surgeon, he was very widely known in Rhode Island, and neighboring 
 parts of other States. . . . His naval experience had turned his attention partic- 
 ularly to surgery. In European hospitals, he appears to have observed surgical 
 cases almost exclusively. As an operator, he was more marked by caution than 
 dexterity, and was particularly methodical in the preparation and arrangement of 
 instruments and dressings. In the Americari Journal of Medical Science, 1848, he 
 published a summary of large surgical operations. He reports fifteen cases of 
 herniotomy, with eleven recoveries." In operative surgery he was unusually successful. 
 While in active practice, he gave instruction to more than fifty private pupils in 
 medicine, and also had private dissecting classes in winter. 
 
 In 1843 he visited Europe for the third time, bought several valuable instru- 
 ments and anatomical preparations in Paris, where his son was at school, and 
 received many polite attentions from eminent surgeons and scientists in London. 
 He joined the Rhode Island - Medical Society in 1823, and in 1837 was elected 
 president for three years. He wrote the biographies of many of its deceased 
 members, and contributed many valuable papers to its transactions. When the 
 American Medical Association was formed, in 1847, Dr. Parsons was present as a 
 delegate, and took an active part in its proceedings. He was well known, through 
 his writings, to many of the members, and attended its meetings in Baltimore, Boston 
 Cincinnati, Charleston, Richmond, New York, St. Louis, and Philadelphia success- 
 ively. In 1853 he was elected first vice-president, and in 1854, at St. Louis, 
 discharged the duties of the absent president, at the early part of the meeting. He 
 was also an honorary member of the medical societies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 New Jersey, and South Carolina. 
 
 Dr. Parsons was an industrious writer on professional subjects. Four of the 
 Boylston prizes were awarded to him, viz.: "For dissertations on Periostitis, 1827; 
 on Eneuresis Irritata, 1828; on 'the connection between cutaneous diseases which 
 are not contagious, and the internal organs,' 1830; and on Cancer of the Breast, 
 1835." Different medical journals were frequently enriched by contributions from 
 his pen. In 183 1 he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics in Jefferson Medical 
 College, Philadelphia, and lectured there in the following winter. In the establish- 
 ment of the Rhode Island Hospital, of which he had long been an eloquent and 
 effective advocate, he bore a leading part ; contributed one thousand dollars to its 
 funds, three hundred volumes to its library, and left one hundred dollars to it in 
 
233 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 his will. "He was at first appointed at the head of its consulting staff." His active 
 mind investigated the claims of all sciences cognate with that to which his life was 
 given. The general principles of phrenology commanded his concurrence, even while 
 he opposed the extravagant claims of the so-called science. In 18,37 he was chosen 
 the first president of the Rhode Island Natural History Society, whose charter he 
 had obtained. Temperance was effectively advocated by him in several places, and 
 education received his aid in the delivery of addresses on physiology. In 1840 
 he lectured before the American Institute of Instruction at Providence, on the 
 connection and reciprocal influence of the brain and stomach. Poetry, history, 
 and works of travel specially interested him. In purely imaginative literature he 
 had little interest. Of the Bible he had ideas peculiar to a very small class of 
 readers, and believed' that "the Christian religion would gain by excluding some of 
 the books." " As a rule of life," he wrote, " and a history of God's government and 
 the plan of salvation, an abridged volume might be formed for general circulation, 
 which would embrace all that is essential." The religious liberalism of his grand- 
 father, the minister at Bradford, was expanded in him. Brought up in the faith 
 of the Puritans, he nevertheless identified himself with the communion of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, attended the ministry of the gospel in churches of 
 different denominations, and was remarkably regular throughout his busiest years of 
 practice in public religious worship. 
 
 In politics. Dr. Parsons seldom took an active part. lie voted with the Whigs, 
 gave his sympathies to Thomas W. Dorr in his endeavors for enlarged suffrage in 
 Rhode Island, but rallied to the support of the existing government when those 
 endeavors_ assumed a revolutionary character. At the outbreak of the great rebellion, 
 in 1 86 1, he volunteered his services to Governor Sprague, and was commissioned as 
 surgeon of the Providence Horse Guards in June. The varying fortunes of the 
 terrible struggle were Vatched with keenest interest to the close. In 1S6S he cast 
 his last vote for Grant and Colfax. As a genealogist he was indefatigable. In 
 1838 he printed an outline of the Genealogy of the Family of Joseph Parsons, and 
 in 1849 ^ somewhat elaborate memoir of Major Charles Frost, his great-great-grand- 
 father. His most important literary undertaking was the Life of Sir William 
 Pepperell, the captor of the French fortified town of Louisburg in 1 745, and the 
 only native of New England who was created a baronet during our colonial period. 
 He also left in manuscript a history of his native town of Alfred, and for many 
 years interested himself in studying the remains, language, and customs of the 
 aborigines in Rhode Island. His written works on that subject are of permanent 
 value. 
 
 By his lelters, addresses, aid pamphlets on the naval engagement in Lake Erie, 
 
17*. ^*>-"V ^x .^ 
 
 '/ iy'J^ ^t^r- y <^>^^ \!Jy/'/^^£- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C L O P/E D I A . 233 
 
 Dr. Parsons vindicated the fair fame of Commodore Perry, and his claims to the 
 credit of victory in that famous encounter. " He was a corresponding member of the 
 historical 'societies of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Wis- 
 consin ; the American Antiquarian Society ; the Academy of Natural Sciences, etc. 
 lie was an active member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and 
 was its first vice-president for Rhode Island, from September, 1864, till his death, tie 
 joined the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1825, and w^as a useful member of it, 
 making many contributions to its collections, and reading several papers at its meet- 
 ings." In 1858 he read a historical address at the anniversary of Perry's victory at 
 Put-in-Bay, and on September loth, i860, was the historical speaker at the dedication 
 of that hero's monument in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 For several years before his death. Dr. Parsons was almost wholly withdrawn 
 from active practice. His noble powers of body and mind failed gradually, and on 
 the morning of December 19th, 1868, he died, at the age of eighty years and four 
 months. The Hon. Samuel G. Arnold, president of the Rhode Island Historical 
 Society, closed his necrological notice of Dr. Parsons in the following year — June ist, 
 1869 — with the appropriate words: "Loved in life and honored in death, his memory 
 will be revered by all who value those high qualities of manhood which were 
 united in his character." 
 
 
 mk HEW, ABRAM MARVIN, M.D., Superintendent of the Connecticut Hospital 
 for the Insane, Middletown, Conn. Born September i8th, 1841, in Leroy, 
 Jefferson County, N. Y,, being the youngest of a family of eleven children. 
 His father, Godfrey J. Shew, was born in Johnstown, Montgomery, now 
 Fulton County, N. Y., October 8th, 1789, and died at WatertoWn, N. Y., October 
 5th, 1863. He w^as one of the most active and influential farmers in Jefferson 
 County, N. Y., and contributed largely to the development of that part of the State. 
 Genial, industrious, frugal, and a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, he was 
 always held in the highest esteem by his neighbors and friends, who repeatedly 
 manifested their confidence in his probity and talents by calling him to occupy 
 local positions of trust and responsibility. 
 
234 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 Godfrey J. was the eldest son of Jacob Shew, who was born in Johnstown, 
 N. Y, April 15th, 1763, and died at Albany, N. Y., January 23d, 1853, at the 
 advanced age of nearly ninety years. Able, active, and laborious, he sustained 
 several important public trusts— and among them that of Representative to the 
 New York Legislature in 1818— with credit and success. His experiences in the 
 Revolutionary War were singularly thrilling and eventful. On the 3d of June, 
 1778, together with his father, two brothers, and twelve other compatriots, he was 
 carried captive into Canada. After his liberation he rendered efficient service in 
 the strug-p-le for national independence. His exertions were mainly confined to the 
 Mohawk Valley, in which he discharged the exciting and perilous duties of a 
 Ranger. 
 
 Jacob was the son of Godfrey Shew, a German nobleman, who arrived in 
 America during the year 1750. While on the way his vessel was nearly ship- 
 wrecked in a violent gale, Vs^hich lasted for several days. All the passengers were 
 employed in working the pumps, both by day and night, to save the ship from 
 foundering. Godfrey Shew and his two German companions vowed that if spared 
 to reach the land, they would not again venture upon the ocean. Shew after- 
 ward became the first permanent settler at the Fish House, Fulton County, N. Y. 
 
 The mother of Dr. A. M. Shew, nee Betsey Beecher, was the second daughter of 
 Abram and Lydia Day Beecher, of Kent, Conn. She was born in Northampton, 
 Fulton County, N. Y., April ist, 1798; and was married to Godfrey J. Shew at 
 the same place, September 24th, 181 5. She died at Middletown, Conn., May 12th, 
 1876. Her grandfather, Abram- Beecher, was born in Woodbridge, Conn., April 
 2Sth, 1 76S, and died in Sharon, Conn., June loth, 1812. 
 
 Dr. Shew, when eleven years of age, removed with his parents to Watertown, 
 N. Y. There he received his academic education, at the Jefferson County Insti- 
 tute, under the tuition of the Rev. John Sessions, and Professor M. P. Cavert. 
 His intention to matriculate at Union College, Schenectady, was overruled by 
 the commencement of the great rebellion in 1861. Opportunities for extensive 
 usefulness in the patriot armies soon presented themselves, and that in the 
 line of his chosen profession. He had already spent one year in preparatory 
 studies, under the direction of Dr. James K. Bates, of Watertown, and decided at 
 once to forego classical culture and to enter upon immediate collegiate preparation 
 
 for medical duty. This he did at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where ■ 
 
 throughout his entire course of instruction — he was enrolled among the pupils of 
 Professor W. H. Pancoast. He also received great encouragement and aid from 
 the late Professor Robley Dunglison. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Bates, who was then Inspector of Prisons, offered to Dr. Shew 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 235 
 
 the office of assistant physician at the New York Asylum for Insane Convicts, at 
 Auburn. The acceptance of this post, which he held for twelve months, was the 
 turning-point of his professional career, and gave that special cast to his studies 
 and medical pursuits which has made him eminent among the benefactors of the 
 race. On the expiration of his services at Auburn, he returned to Philadelphia, 
 pi-osecuted his studies with diligence, and graduated with honor. Insanity was the 
 subject of his thesis at the epoch of graduation. 
 
 Immediately after the receipt of his diploma. Dr. Shew presented himself befoi'e 
 the army examining board, and was appointed assistant surgeon of United States 
 Volunteers. Three days later he was ordered to report to the medical director of 
 the Department of the South, and was by him assigned to duty as port surgeon 
 and health officer at Hilton Head, South Carolina. Six months passed away in 
 the efficient discharge of his special duties at that post, and Dr. Shew was then 
 ordered to Beaufort, to assume the charge of the port hospital. In this position, 
 which he held till the close of the war, he illustrated marked executive ability, and 
 received the commendations of the department. 
 
 On his return to Philadelphia, Dr. Shew was appointed one of the resident 
 physicians of the Philadelphia (Blockley) Hospital. While there his early inter- 
 est in mental disorders was reawakened, and led to the decision to make mental pa- 
 thology the specialty of his professional life. There, too, he became acquainted 
 with that excellent and most useful philanthropist. Miss Dix, who had already done 
 much to alleviate the sufferings of the insane. In the spring of 1866 he received 
 the appointment of assistant to Dr. Buttolph, superintendent of the New Jersey 
 State Lunatic Asylum, at Trenton. In that relation he gave special attention to 
 plans of hospital buildings and methods of construction, and the best modes of 
 providing for the wants of different classes of patients. The results of his studies 
 were then embodied in plans of an ideal hospital, which attracted the notice of 
 specialists, and v^^ere finally adopted by the board of trustees of the Connecticut 
 Hospital for the Insane. 
 
 In September, i865. Dr. Shew was appointed to superintend the construction 
 and organization of this institution, and entered upon the performance of his functions 
 on the 15th of the following month. Since then he has been the executive head 
 of the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane. Responsibilities in connection with this 
 grand Christian establishment have been particularly onerous, but his strength and 
 resources have also been abundantly competent to cope with and control them. Miss 
 Dix, his old Philadelphia acquaintance, lent efficacious assistance in the creation of the 
 institution. Mainly through her earnest and judicious efforts, the General Assembly 
 of Connecticut, at the session held in New Haven in 1866, passed "An act to 
 create a hospital for the insane in the State of Connecticut." 
 
236 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO T^D I A. 
 
 The preamble to the bill recites that the report of the committee appointed by 
 the General Assembly of 1865 "shows that there are seven hundred and six insane 
 persons in the State of Connecticut, of whom two hundred and two are in the 
 ' Retreat ' at Hartford ; two hundred and four are in the almshouses, and three 
 hundred outside of both;" that "it is impossible to secure suitable care and medical 
 attention for this large and deeply afflicted class, either in the ' Retreat,' or in the 
 almshouses, or in private houses ;" and that " considerations of humanity and of true 
 economy, as well as of public welfare, and of our holy religion, all alike demand 
 that these persons should be liberally provided for by the State." Therefore, it was 
 resolved to erect that truly beneficent asylum, " The General Hospital for the Insane 
 of the State of Connecticut." 
 
 A board of eleven trustees was appointed in conformity with the provisions of 
 the act, and entered upon its duties at once with unanimous zeal. The offer from 
 the town of Middletown of about two hundred acres of land, as a gratuity to the 
 State, for the foundation of the hospital, was formally accepted. An addition of about 
 one hundred adjoining acres was subsequently effected by purchase. The site of 
 the institution is about one mile and a half south-east of the city of Middletown. 
 It borders on the " Connecticut River, is dry and healthy, easy of access by land 
 and water, commanding on all sides extended views of a beautiful region, and — what 
 is of special mark — includes the absolute control of a living stream called Butler's 
 Creek, which furnishes an abundant supply of pure soft water, adequate to all the 
 requirements within the walls, and sufficient for the mechanical and ornamental uses 
 of engines and fountains." 
 
 During the winter of 1866-7, Dr. Shew, as superintendent, was engaged in 
 elaborating the details of plans which he had submitted, and which were adopted 
 unanimously, with approval by the board of trustees. On the 20th of June, 1867, 
 the corner-stone was laid by Governor James E. English, in the presence of the 
 State officers, members of the Legislature, and a large concourse of interested 
 spectators. Addresses were duly delivered by distinguished orators, and the super- 
 vision of the rising building was then remitted to the indefatigable superintendent. 
 The work was vigorously pushed by him, parts of the edifice were inclosed before 
 winter set in, and on the 29th of April, 1868, the first male patient was admitted. 
 The formal opening of the hospital took place on the 30th, and twelve additional 
 men w^ere received for treatment. The official returns since then exhibit a gratifying 
 increase of public confidence in the skill of Dr. Shew and his laborious assistants. 
 The fountain of healing over which he presides has become known to the. common- 
 wealth, and hundreds flock thither for relief and cure. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N CY C LO P^ D I A. 
 
 237 
 
 "The daily average number of patients during tlie first twelve official years is 
 shown in the subjoined table : 
 
 Official Year. 
 
 186S-69 
 
 1869-70 
 
 1870-71 
 
 1871-72 
 
 1872-73 
 
 1873-74 
 
 1874-75 
 
 1875-76 
 
 1876, April ist to November 3d 
 
 1876-77 
 
 1877-78 
 
 1878-79 
 
 Men. 
 
 79-35 
 110.63 
 
 JI5-97 
 124.21 
 133. It 
 146.43 
 
 198.54 
 225 .60 
 
 228.39 
 
 231-45 
 236. 1 1 
 
 244-57 
 
 Women. 
 
 6.12 
 
 114 
 
 54 
 
 117 
 
 72 
 
 118 
 
 44 
 
 132 
 
 43 
 
 193 
 
 29 
 
 227 
 
 19 
 
 227 
 
 02 
 
 228 
 
 58 
 
 233 
 
 43 
 
 2i8 
 
 06 
 
 253 
 
 76 
 
 Total. 
 
 85-47 
 225.17 
 
 233-69 
 
 242.65 
 264.54 
 339-72 
 4-5-73 
 452.62 
 
 456.97 
 463.88 
 
 474.17 
 498.34 
 
 Up to December ist, 1879, the number of admissions reached eighteen hundred 
 and thirty-seven. The first appropriation for this hospital was made by the General 
 Assembly in 1866. Additional appropriations followed from year to year until January, 
 1874, when the last wing was completed, and formally opened for the reception of 
 male patients. The entire sum appropriated by the State for this beneficent work — 
 including the purchase of land, construction of dam, reservoir, and water-works, and 
 for the erection and furnishing of the hospital buildings — was $640,043. Ample 
 accommodations for four hundred and fifty patients, and necessary attendants, are 
 thus provided at the average rate of about fourteen hundred dollars per capita." 
 
 Dr. Shew's name and fame are imperishably identi6ed with this impressive and 
 practical embodiment of the highest and best form of modern Christian civilization. 
 Like the profession of which he is an eminent member, it is unostentatiously 
 instinct with the spirit of that Great Physician to whom the sick in body and mind 
 resorted, and of whom it is recorded that "He healed them all." From 1872 to 
 1S76, and since, "a partial trial of the 'cottage system' has been made; two 
 dwelling-houses, situated a. few rods south of the main building, were refitted and 
 furnished in a plain manner for the occupation of fourteen male and sixteen female 
 patients, selected from the class of quiet chronic cases. The buildings are simple 
 wooden structures, heated by coal stoves, and lighted by oil lamps. Our experience 
 is," continues Dr. Shew, " that under favorable circumstances, a system of cottages 
 may become an important part of a regularly organized hospital. Cottages sub- 
 stantially constructed of brick or stone, situated sufficiently near the main buildings 
 to be properly heated by steam, and lighted by gas from the common centre, would 
 be a very desirable addition to the present methods of caring for the insane. The 
 superintendent could, from day to day, transfer to cottages such patients as he found 
 to require less and less restraint upon personal liberty." 
 
23S BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 During the year 1877 Dr. Shew made a brief visit to California and the Sand- 
 wich Islands, in search of rest and recuperation from over-work. In 1878 he spent 
 three months abroad, visiting asylums in England, Germany, Belgium, and France. 
 He is a member of the American Medical Association ; of the Connecdcut Medical 
 Society; of the Middlesex County Medical Society, of which he was president 
 during the year 1874; of the Association of Superintendents of American Institu- 
 tions for the Insane ; of the Philadelphia Hospital Association ; and of the Middle- 
 town Scienrific Association. To the medical journals of the country he has made 
 many valuable contriburions. His annual reports are models of concise, compre- 
 hensive, and valuable information. His History of the Connecticut Hospital for the 
 Insane, because of its intrinsic importance, possesses a permanent place in the history 
 of American medical literature. He has also published papers on the following sub- 
 jects, viz. : Responsibility in Mental Disease ; Mechanical Restraint in the Treatment 
 of the Insane ; The Insane Colony at Ghent; What can be Done for the Idiotic 
 Insane ? and A Glance at the Past and Present Condition of the Insane. 
 
 Dr. Shew's eldest brother, Joel Shew, M.D., was one of the earliest hydropathic 
 practitioners in the United States. Soon after obtaining his degree, in 1 841, he 
 spent several years at the water-cure establishment of Priessnitz, in Germany, 
 adopted the views embodied in it, and on his return home commenced the prac- 
 tice of hydropathy. Besides superintending a large establishment, visiting numerous 
 patients at remote distances, and contributing to the Water-Cure Journal (which 
 he established), and other hydropathic periodicals, he published a work entitled 
 Hydropathy, or Water-Ctire, in New York, 1848; the Water-Cure Manual, in 1850; 
 Management of Children in Health and Disease, in 1852 ; Midzvifcry and Diseases of 
 Women, in 1852; Hydropathic Family Physician, in 1854; and other works. 
 
 On Wednesday, January 27th, 1869, Dr. Abram Marvin Shew was married to 
 Elizabeth Collins Palmer, eldest daughter of the Hon. Lewis Palmer, of Watertown, 
 N. Y. She was a lady of amiable disposition, strong and cultivated intellect, rare 
 musical abilities, and exercised very powerful influence for good both in the insti- 
 tution and in society. Her death, on the 19th of January, 1874, at the birth of her 
 second child, brought sorrow and desolarion to her own home, and unusual grief 
 into a wide circle of loving friends. 
 
 On the 1 2th of June, 1878, Dr. A. M. Shew was again married, to Clara 
 Loomis, only daughter of S. L. Bradley, Esq., of Auburn, N. Y. This union, 
 auspiciously consummated and productive of much happiness to both parties, was 
 suddenly broken by the unexpected death of Mrs. Shew, from diphtheria, on the 22d 
 of September, 1879. Without premonition, and after an illness of only a few days, the 
 lovely Chrisrian mother was called from a bright and beautiful home on the chano-e- 
 ful earth to that heavenly home where none of the inhabitants say, " I am sick." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 239 
 
 INGSBURY, FREDERICK JOHN, was bora in Wateibury, Conn., Janu- 
 ary ist, 1823. His ancestor, Henry Kingsbury, came from England to 
 Boston, with Governor Winthrop, in 1630. He settled at Ipswich, but 
 c)" removed later to Haverhill, whence his son Joseph removed with his family 
 to Norwich, Conn., in 1708. His son, Joseph, Jr., married, before leaving Haverhill, 
 Ruth Denison, a great-granddaughter of Major-General Daniel Denison, of Ipswich, 
 a man of much note in the Massachusetts colony. John Kingsbury, the grandson 
 of Joseph, Jr., graduated at Yale College in 1786, and immediately afterward went to 
 Waterbury to teach ; he afterward settled there in the practice of the law and was 
 for many years one of the judges of the court for New Haven County, and for 
 thirty years and until disqualified by age the probate judge for that district. He 
 married Marcia, daughter of Deacon Stephen Bronson, a descendant through a line of 
 deacons of one of the first settlers of Waterbury. Charles Denison, son of John, 
 is the father of Frederick J. Kingsbury, and is still living in good health at the 
 age of eighty-four. His only other child is the wife of Professor Carter of Yale 
 College. 
 
 The mother of Frederick was the daughter of Dr. Frederick Leavenworth, and 
 great-granddaughter of Rev. Mark Leavenworth, who was pastor of the First Con- 
 gregational Church in Waterbury from 1739 to 1797. 
 
 Frederick resided with his parents in Waterbury, with the exception of about a 
 year and a half spent with his maternal uncle. Rev. A. J. Leavenworth, at Warrenton, 
 and Petersburg, in Virginia, until 1842, when he entered Yale College, where he 
 graduated in 1846. He spent the following year at the Yale Law School, then under 
 the charge of the late Chief Justice Storrs, of Connecticut, and Isaac H. Townsend, 
 Esq. He then entered the office of Hon. Charles G. Loring, at Boston, and was 
 admitted to the bar of Suffolk County at the March term, 1848. On account of 
 the declining health of his mother, he being her only son, he decided to return to 
 Connecticut, and after having spent some months in the office of Hon. Thomas C. 
 Perkins, of Hartford, he opened an office in Waterbury in the spring of 1849. 
 
 In 1850 he represented Waterbury in the Legislature, and thinking that a 
 savings bank would be a benefit to the people of that growing manufacturing town 
 he obtained a charter for one. There being no one then in Waterbury familiar with 
 the management of such an institution he investigated the subject, and was appointed 
 its treasurer, and has successfully administered its affairs since that time. This 
 turned his attention to the business of banking, and in 1853, in connection with 
 the late Abram Ives, Esq., he established the Citizens' Bank, now the Citizens' Na- 
 tional Bank of Waterbury, of which he is still president. 
 
 Again in 1858 and in 1865 he represented the town in the Legislature, acting 
 
240 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C L O P.-E D 1 A . 
 
 on both occasions as chairman of the Committee on Banks, and in 1865 as a 
 member of the Committee on the Revision of the Statutes. 
 
 In 1868 he was elected president of the Scovill Manufacturing Company of 
 Waterbury, and since then has given a considerable portion of his time to its affairs. 
 In 1868 he was also elected treasurer of the Bronson Library Fund (a fund of 
 $200,000 left by the late Silas 'Bronson for maintaining a free library in Water- 
 bury). He is also a member of its Managing Board, and chairman of the Library 
 Committee. 
 
 He holds a variety of offices in the several manufacturing, railroad and other 
 business corporations with which he is connected, to a number of which he devotes 
 considerable time and thought. 
 
 He served on the Centennial Board for Connecticut, and has held several minor 
 offices of a public character. In 1876 he declined, on account of pressing business 
 engagements, to allow his name to be used as nominee for governor of the State, 
 but allowed its use for the second place on the ticket, which, however, was not 
 elected. 
 
 He is a member and officer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is 
 treasurer of the diocese. 
 
 Mr. Kingsbury married, April 29th, 1851, Alathea Ruth, eldest daughter of the late 
 Wm. H. Scovill, Esq., and great-granddaughter of the Rev. James Scovill, the first 
 rector of the Episcopal Church in Waterbury, who graduated at Yale College in 
 1757, was ordained in England, and appointed a missionary of the venerable Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel. Mr. Kingsbury's children are four in number, 
 three daughters and a son. He says they are the lineal descendants of all the 
 clergymen of all denominations who were settled in Waterbury for the first hundred 
 years after the founding of the town. 
 
 Mr. Kingsbury is fond of literary pursuits and of historical and philosophical 
 studies. Amidst engrossing business cares he has found opportunity for no little 
 research in the various fields which attract scholarly men ; so that while his judgment 
 is regarded as of great value in matters of business and finance, his opinions arc at 
 the same time habitually deferred to on questions of literature and art. He has 
 furnished occasional articles for magazines on a variety of subjects, and has con- 
 tributed to ^several other publications. He has always been much interested in the 
 growth and prosperity of his native town, and has taken an active part in all plans 
 for its improvement and the promotion of the well-being of its people. At the same 
 rime his indirect and silent influence has been great, not only in his own town but 
 beyond it ; for in a city devoted to manufactures and trade he has long stood as a 
 conspicuous representative of the best American culture— illustrating the^ practicability ■ 
 
%t ^?'^ 
 
 if'^Q^-^ .^-^JV-T 7 C^C 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 241 
 
 of combining an intelligent interest in ' literature, art and science, with fidelity to 
 important business trusts and to constantly accumulating duties. 
 
 VERILL, ROGER, of Danbury, Conn., lawyer, and ex-Lieutenant-Governor 
 of the State of Connecticut. Born in Salisbury, in Litchfield County, Conn. 
 His father, Nathaniel P. Averill, and also his grandfather, Samuel Averill, 
 were natives of Washington in the same count}^, and followed agricultural 
 pursuits. In common with most of the inhabitants of that region, the Averills were 
 of English extraction. His mother, Mary Whittlesey, w^as a daughter of John 
 Whittlesey of the same county. Her six brothers all attained social prominence and 
 distinction. The youngest of them, Elisha, was a well-known member of Congress 
 from Ohio. In the History of Ancient Woodbury are many particulars concerning 
 these eminent Connecticut families. The father of Governor Averill died in 1856 at 
 the mature age of eighty-six. His mother also departed this life in the same year 
 at the age of eighty-five. 
 
 One of seven children, young Averill's early education was received in the 
 family, and in the excellent common schools of his native town. A thirst for 
 knowledge, and endowed with unusual energy, he eagerly availed himself of the 
 aid afforded by two well-furnished libraries then in existence in Salisbury. The first 
 estabhshed before the revolutionary war became an enduring monument of the 
 sagacity and generosity of its founders. An association of gentlemen was formed 
 avowedly for "the promotion of virtue, education, and learning, and the discourage- 
 ment of vice and immorality," and money was raised for the purchase of books 
 which was confided to an English gentleman named Smith, then a resident of the 
 town. This money was expended in London in procuring a choice collection of 
 works on divinity, philosophy, history, etc., which was forwarded to New York free 
 of charge for commissions or freights. Out of respect for the man, and in recogni- 
 tion of the service he then rendered, the proprietors called the library after his 
 name. 
 
 Many of the most substantial and successful business men and families of that 
 and other localities have been greatly indebted to that collection of books. Among 
 
 these was the late Caleb Bingham, Esq., of Boston, Mass., who in 1803 sent one 
 16 
 
242 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 hundred and fifty volumes from the shelves of his own bookcase for the sole use 
 of the children of Salisbury between the ages of nine and sixteen years. This 
 collection was styled and known as " Bingham Library for Youth." It was from time 
 to time largely increased by donations of books from individuals, and by money 
 generously voted by the town to purchase new books as they were needed. It is 
 believed that this was the first youth's library in the State, and perhaps in the 
 country. 
 
 Young Averill's love of reading was greatly stimulated and increased by the 
 use of these volumes. They contributed largely to furnish him with useful infor- 
 rwation in early life, and made him keenly appreciative of the pleasures and 
 advantages of knowledge. 
 
 He passed from the common schools of his native town to the Academy in 
 Southington, in Hartford County. Thence he repaired to Bethany, in Wayne County, 
 Penn., taught school in that place, and at the same time continued his studies 
 preparatory to entering college. After a year of teaching and study at Bethany Mr. 
 Averill returned to Salisbury and prosecuted his studies under the guidance and 
 instruction of his brother Chester Averill, who was then the professor of chemistry 
 and botany in Union College, Schenectady, New York. 
 
 Entering the Sophomore class of that institution in 1830 he graduated in 
 1832 with the highest honors of the college, and subsequently received its 
 diplomas. He again returned to Salisbury, and opened a select school which 
 proved to be the origin of a highly successful academy at that place. 
 
 Among his pupils were several who have distinguished themselves in social, 
 professional, and official life, and whose justly acquired reputation has reflected 
 honor upon the Academy and its founder. 
 
 Between the pursuits of the teacher and of the practical lawyer a natural 
 alliance is manifest. The first often proves to be an admirable preparation for the 
 second. Both aim to effect decisive action, through instruction and conviction. 
 Superiority in the school augurs superiority in the forum. 
 
 Mr. Averill prepared for the practice of law by diligent and thorough study 
 in the office of the late Chief Justice Church, who was then a resident of Salisbury. 
 Admitted to the bar of Litchfield County in 1837, he began professional business 
 in his native town and commanded the respect and confidence of the citizens from 
 the outset.^ Various public offices of trust and responsibility were successively and 
 satisfactorily filled. In 1843 he was elected a member of the House of Representa- 
 tives in the State Legislature, in which he served on various important commit- 
 tees, including that of Claims, of which he was chairman. 
 
 He removed to Danbury in 1849, where he has since resided in full practice of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 243 
 
 the duties of his chosen profession. In 185 1 and 1852 he was elected Judge of Pro- 
 bate for the District of Danbury. 
 
 In April 1862 and annually thereafter at four successive elections he was elected 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut on the same ticket with that excellent war 
 Governor William A. Buckingham. Together they rendered most efficient service 
 to the State and country until after the close of the Rebellion. 
 
 At his own residence he was the first to raise the Stars and Stripes on the 
 arrival of the tidings that the nation's flag had been subjected to insult and outrage 
 at Fort Sumter. Throughout the whole of the momentous struggle that ensued he 
 powerfully aided by personal influence and patriotic liberality to keep the Stars and 
 Stripes aloft at the head of the national armies. He presided at many public 
 meetings, and by word and deed in various ways encouraged enlistments into the 
 military service of the United States. He presented a beautiful stand of colors to a 
 company of volunteers raised in Danbury, which assumed the name of " Averill 
 Guards." In 1868 he was again elected to the Legislature and served as chairman 
 of the Judiciary Committee. 
 
 Mr. Averill has been a director in the Danbury National Bank for fifteen 
 years and of the Savings Bank of Danbury for upward of ten years. He has 
 also acted as director and treasurer of the Danbury Mutual Fire Insurance Company 
 since its organization in 1851. In educational as well as in fiscal affairs of the 
 town and State he has always exhibited the deepest interest, and for thirteen years 
 sustained the office and performed the duties of trustee of the State Normal 
 School. 
 
244 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 §ANFORD, LEONARD J., M.A., M.D., of New Haven. Born in that city 
 November 8th, 1833. His father, Elihu Sanford, was a native of Wood- 
 (^ bridge. Conn., and a merchant in New Haven. His grandfather, Elihu San- 
 ford, was a farmer, and served with distinction in the war of 181 2. He 
 was one af the first to volunteer in defence of his country, and acted with such 
 efficiency that when he retired to civil life it was with the nobly won rank of colonel. 
 The mother of Dr. Sanford, nee Susan Howell, was the daughter of Leverett 
 Howell, a native of New Haven and a sea captain in the merchant service, who 
 died of yellow fever at St. Thomas, in the West Indies, at the age of forty years, 
 while in pursuance of a trading voyage. 
 
 The preparatory education of young Sanford was obtained in the public and 
 private schools of New Haven. His professional education began in the office of 
 Dr. N. B. Ives, of New Haven, was continued by attendance on his first course of 
 lectures at the Medical School connected with Yale College, and was completed at 
 Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, from which he received the diploma of 
 M.D. in March, 1854. He then spent one year, subsequent to graduation, in clinical 
 study at the different hospitals in New York. 
 
 In the spring of 1855 he began the practice of his profession in the city of 
 New Haven, and has been actively occupied therein from that to the present time. 
 In 1858 he received the degree of M.A. from the corporation of Yale College, and, 
 in 1863 accepted the offer of the Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology in the 
 School of Medicine affiliated with that celebrated school of liberal culture. He 
 still retains that office, and also officiates — as he has done for many years — as Lec- 
 turer in Physiology and Hygiene to the Academical and Theological Departments 
 of the University. 
 
 Dr. Sanford enjoys an extensive local practice, which he carries on simulta- 
 neously with his professional duties. He is also an occasional contributor to current 
 medical periodicals, is a member of the New Haven Medical Society, of the Con- 
 necticut State Medical Society, of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
 and is also a permanent member of the American Medical Association. 
 
 On the nth of April, 1866, he was married to Annie M., daughter of the 
 late William Cutler, a merchant of New Haven. Three children— two daughters 
 and one son— of whom the latter is the eldest, are the issue of his marriage. 
 
 ■*&' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C YC LO P^D I A . 245 
 
 ^YNCHON, THOMAS RUGGLES, D.D., LL.D., President of Trinity Col- 
 ^^ lege, Hartford, Conn. Born in New Haven, January 19th, 1823. He is a 
 lineal descendant of William Pynchon, of the family of Pynchons, of 
 Writtle, Essex, England; one of the original patentees of the Massachu- 
 setts Bay Company, who in connection with Governor Winthrop and others brought 
 the charter to New England in 1630; and who was the founder of Roxbury, near 
 Boston, now incorporated with that city. In 1636 he removed to Springfield, on the 
 Connecticut River (of which place he was the founder), and was the pioneer in the 
 settlement of the valley through which it flows, from Warehouse Point to Deerfield. 
 In 1650 he returned to England, and settled at Wyrardisbury, or Wraysbury, Buck- 
 inghamshire, on the Thames, near Windsor, opposite Runnymede and Magna Charta 
 Island; and died there in 1662, leaving his vast property in this country to his son, 
 John Pynchon. 
 
 John Pynchon married Amy, daughter of Governor Wyllys, of Hartford. He 
 was one of the assistants under the old Massachusetts charter, a member of Sir 
 Edmund Andross's Council for New England, and one of the original councillors 
 under the charter of William and Mary. A great-grandson of this John Pynchon, 
 named Joseph Pynchon, graduated at Yale College in 1756, and spent his life chiefly 
 at Guilford, near New Haven, where he married Sarah, only child of the Rev. 
 Thomas Ruggles ; he died in 1 794. Through this marriage the name and property 
 of the Ruggles family passed to his son, Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, who was bora 
 in 1 760, and died in 1 796. Both father and son were stanch loyalists, and strongly 
 opposed to the dismemberment of the British Empire ; but at the close of the 
 Revolutionary war they gave in their adhesion to the new Republican Government, 
 and returned to Guilford. 
 
 William Henry Ruggles Pynchon, son of Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, became a 
 resident of New Haven, and married Mary, the daughter of James Murdock, Esq., 
 of Schenectady, N. Y., a Scottish gentleman, and a graduate of the University of 
 Glasgow, who came to this country soon after the Revolution. By her he had six 
 children, of whom the second is now the President of Trinity College. 
 
 Dr. Pynchon's father died in the year 1831. His academic education was re- 
 ceived in the Latin School at Boston, Mass., whence he repaired to Trinity College, 
 matriculated there in 1837, and graduated in 1841. Two years afterward, in 1843, 
 he was appointed lecturer in chemistry, and served the college in that capacity, and 
 also in the office of tutor until 1847. Responsive to the call of the Great Head 
 of the Church, and to his own profound convictions of individual duty, he then de- 
 termined to enter the Christian ministry, and was ordained to the office of deacon 
 in June, 1848, by Bishop Brownell, at St. Paul's Church, New Haven, during the 
 
246 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 meeting of the Diocesan Convention. In June, 1849, he was ordained a priest by 
 Bishop Eastburn, in Trinity Church, Boston; and from that year until 1854 officiated 
 as Rector of the churches in Stockbridge and Lenox, Berkshire County, Mass. In 
 1854 he resigned these parishes to enter upon the duties of Scovill Professor of 
 Chemistry and the Natural Sciences in Trinity College, and held that position until 
 called to the Presidency in 1874. 
 
 In 1855 he was granted leave of absence from professional duties, and spent the 
 ensuing eighteen months in Europe, chiefly in France, Italy, and Sicily. For some 
 years after his return he was actively occupied with the functions legitimate to his 
 chair, and also in the discharge of clerical duty as Chaplain of the college, an office 
 he had been called upon to fill. In 1867 he again visited Europe, and after his 
 return published, in 1869, a Treatise on the Chemical Forces, a book designed espe- 
 cially for the instruction of his own students. 
 
 When the scheme of selling the old college campus to the city of Hartford 
 as a site for the new Capitol was broached in 1872, Dr. Pynchon was one of the 
 most active opponents of the measure. But the sale having been consummated 
 and further opposition having become useless, he bent all his energies to saving the 
 college from the destruction that seemed to threaten it; and as president it fell 
 to his lot to be the principal agent in erecting the new buildings and in trans- 
 fering the college to its new location. The difficulties of the undertaking were 
 enormous and demanded an extraordinary degree of creative and executive skill. 
 New plans had to be prepaied, adopted and carried into eflFect. But all obstacles 
 were triumphantly surmounted, and the new college edifices occupied contempora- 
 neously with the destruction of the old buildings in September, 1878. 
 
 The eminent abilities and high culture of the president had already received 
 due recognition first, in 1865, in the conferring of the degree of D.D. by St. 
 Stephen's College, Annandale, N. Y., and second, in 1877, in the bestowal of the 
 degree of LL.D., by Columbia College, in the city of New York ; but his fame 
 in the future will largely rest in the efficient and successful manner in which he 
 has managed and supervised the affairs of Trinity College, at what has been, per- 
 haps, the most critical epoch in its history. 
 
 Trinity College was the second college established in Connecticut; the first 
 having been Yale College, founded in 1701. This great event was the result of a 
 struggle carried on for forty years, and was not accomplished until a political rev- 
 olution had established the present State Constitution. One of the first acts under 
 the new regime was granting a charter for a second college. This was passed 
 May i6th, 1823. The new institution was first known as Washington College; 
 Hartford liberally contributed toward the erection of suitable buildings and for the' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C L O P.IL D I A . 247 
 
 general endowment; and a tract of land embracing fourteen acres, and possessed 
 of many natural advantages, having been selected in that city for the site of the 
 college, the work of construction was begun in the month of June, 1824. In the 
 fall of 1825 the college was formally opened, and instruction commenced. Two 
 halls had been put up, of which Jarvis Hall was designed for the accommodation 
 of students, while Seabury Hall contained the chapel, library, cabinet, and other 
 public apartments. In 1845 an additional dormitory, named Brownell Hall, was 
 raised, and the name of the institution was changed from Washington to Trinity 
 College. In 1872 the old campus was sold to the city of Hartford for the sum 
 of $600,000 ; the college reserving the right of occupancy for five years. Early in 
 the following year the Trustees negotiated for the purchase of a tract of land 
 containing eighty acres whereon to place the new building. Considerable time v^^as 
 spent in 1872 and 1873 in consultation with architects, and the plans and sketches 
 which were prepared and sent over by William Burges, of London, having met with 
 the general approval of the Trustees, an architect was sent from this country in 
 Decerhber, 1873, for the purpose of preparing working drawings in the office of 
 Mr. Burgess in London, and several months were spent in the execution of this 
 work. On their arrival in America, in October, 1874, the plans were found to be 
 impracticable, and having been rejected by the Trustees, the duty of preparing 
 a suitable- plan was intrusted to Dr. Pynchon on his election to the presidency 
 in November of that year. By the next spring the outlines of the new plan 
 were agreed upon by the trustees, and by July the details so far perfected as 
 to admit of the ceremony of breaking ground on the evening of Commencement 
 Day. The new plan differs essentially from the one originally proposed in many 
 important respects, and especially in this, that there are but three quadrangles instead 
 of four, and of these the central one is of great extent and double the size of those 
 on the .north and south. The erection of the buildings commenced in August of 
 the same year, and the work went on without intermission until January, 1879. The 
 college property was transferred in the summer of 1878, and the college opened 
 in the new buildings in September of that year. The new site stands upon the 
 summit of a cliff overlooking the surrounding country, and is the centre of a land- 
 scape as beautiful as any in the far-famed Connecticut Valley. It commands a 
 ;view from north to south of seventy miles, and proves in every respect an admirable 
 situation for the college pile. When completed the buildings will not only be perfect 
 in themselves, but also collectively possess merit of design, and form an harmonious 
 and symmetrical whole. The entire frontage of the north and south line is over 
 1300 feet, consisting chiefly of dormitory and lecture-room blocks, with connecting 
 gateways. The north side of the great quadrangle will contain the dining-hall and 
 
248 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA."^ 
 
 chapel, the south side the library and museum. The north line of the upper quad- 
 rangle will be composed of the theatre for commencement and other exercises, and 
 the observatory. The southern line of the lower quadrangle will consist of the 
 president's house, and a block containing residences for the professors. When fully 
 completed it will architecturally be a singularly attractive collegiate structure. The 
 style is early French Gothic, and is devoid of excessive ornamentation, depending for 
 it5 effects upon simplicity and boldness of detail, and the harmonious grouping of 
 windows and other prominent features. Every possible arrangement for the health, 
 comfort, and convenience of the students has been called into requisition. The 
 bronze statue, of Bishop Brownell, modelled by Powers at Florence and cast at 
 Munich, representing that prelate in the act of pronouncing the benediction, will 
 be placed in front of the principal entrance. The bishop was the founder of the 
 college, and it is highly appropriate that his name should be perpetuated by , this 
 noble memorial. 
 
 While the external appearance of the new college is thus singularly attractive, 
 the internal organization is not less well designed and harmonious. The instruction 
 in every department is severe and thorough, and an unusually large amount of 
 personal attention is given by the professors to each individual student, thus repro- 
 ducing the pleasant social relations between instructors and students which render 
 residence at Oxford and Cambridge so profitable and delightful. The course of 
 study is prescribed for all, and is based upon the experience that has been gained 
 by the great intellects that have been engaged in the work of training the human 
 mind through many hundred years, and in this respect it differs essentially from 
 the rash theoretical educational experiments that are in vogue elsewhere. The disci- 
 pline is firm but kind. The administration aims, as has wisely been remarked, " at 
 exercising as much watchfulness and as much control as necessary, and nothing 
 more, to form a character which will stand when the scaffoldings are taken down." 
 Since the removal to the new buildings, very great advancement has been made in 
 equipment, in instruction, and in discipline, showing that a healthy and vigorous life 
 is active in every part of the organization. Above all, the important subject of 
 religion is treated as an objective reality. The great facts in the complete reception 
 of which Christian faith consists are taught as possessed of absolute certainty, far 
 exceeding that of the postulates of the most firmly established science, and free from 
 vagueness. This is the rock on which the college is founded. 
 
 Trinity College has made important contributions to the bench and to the bar 
 to the civil service and to active business life, to legislative bodies, to the army and 
 navy, and to the church at home and abroad, and, with augmented resources and 
 more highly disciplined power, will doubtless excel both past and present in the 
 future under the governance of its present head. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 249 
 
 ,_.,_URR, ALFRED R, of Hartford, Conn. Born in Hartford, March 27th, 1815. 
 "1iP^*\ His father, James Burr, belonged to the old line of Burrs, so honorably 
 and prominently associated with the colonial settlement of the present 
 capital of the State. James Burr was a local merchant, but was also, at 
 one time, engaged in trade with the West Indies. The mother of Alfred E. Burr, 
 nee Lucretia Olcott, was the daughter of Joseph Olcott, and thus a member of 
 another of the old State families. 
 
 The facilities afforded to him for the acquisition of a thorough practical 
 education were wisely and earnestly utilized by young Burr. He learned how to 
 seize passing opportunities, and to make the most profitable use of them. Educated 
 in the schools of Hartford, he afterward learned the printer's trade. In January, 
 1839, he purchased one half of the proprietary interest in the Hartford Times, with 
 which he has since been identified. His tastes, abilities, and habits being eminently 
 journalistic, and his professional successes commensurate with his qualifications, he is 
 entitled to rank with such born editors as Samuel Bowles and Horace Greeley. 
 Not less within its own sphere has the Hartford Times been influential than the 
 Springfield Republican and the New York Tribune in theirs. 
 
 The political principles of the Hartford Times have been fixed and unvarying. 
 They embody the conclusions of much careful thought and study, and command the 
 respect due to conscientious and deliberate conviction. Conscience and moral princi- 
 ple have been incorporated with its issues since the hour of Alfred E. Burr's 
 connection with it, and indeed from its very foundation on January ist, 1817. 
 
 Prior to his ownership of pecuniary interest in the Times, Mr. Burr had been 
 employed in the printing-rooms of the old Federal and Whig organ, the Connecticut 
 Courant — a prosperous daily sheet. George Goodwin & Sons, the proprietors, wishing 
 to retire from its active management, offered the whole establishment to their 
 energetic employ^, on easy and favorable terms. Two conditions, coupled with 
 the offer, would not allow him to become the publisher and proprietor of the 
 Courant. The first of these was that he should attend divine worship in a certain 
 church for which he had no special affinities ; the second was that he should vote 
 and support the Whig ticket — a thing impossible to one whose political principles 
 and preferences were diametrically antagonistic to those of the Whig party. The 
 offer was therefore declined, and his fortunes cast in with those of the Hartford 
 Times, which was then a weekly publication. In January, 1841, Mr. Burr purchased 
 the remaining portion of the stock or interest, and thus became sole editor and 
 proprietor. 
 
 For sixty-three years the paper has been distinguished by consistent continuity 
 of doctrine in all matters pertinent to political philosophy and political economy. 
 
2SO BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO PJi. D I A. 
 
 Its first publisher was F. D. Bolles, and its first editor the late John M. Niles. 
 From its foundation, it has expounded and upheld the teaching of the Jeffersonian 
 school of Democracy; and that with such clearness, force, and aptitude as to compel 
 recognition as one of the leading (if not the leading) organs of the Democratic 
 party in the ^tate, and, indeed, in all the New England States. Its especial historic 
 renown lies in its championship of needed reforms; in having caught and strength- 
 ened the spirit of the times ; and in leading on progressive lovers of liberty to 
 eventual victory. Its first campaign was against the old Connecticut system of 
 Church and State. The old royal charter, under which the people lived, was not 
 adapted to their wants. A loud demand for a new and purely republican one arose, 
 and continually waxed louder. The Federal party refused to concede it. They were 
 powerful, aristocratic, and intolerant. Their leaders were regarded as haughty and 
 exclusive oligarchs. All the citizens were taxed for the maintenance of " the standing 
 order," the Congregational churches. The reformers acquired the title of " Tolera- 
 TiONiSTS," and sought to break down the old rule, and to make religion free of 
 legal patronage and control. 
 
 The elections held in the year 1817 resulted in the downfall of the dominant 
 Federals, and in calling a convention which framed the present constitution in 18 18. 
 Godly and learned ministers, like Dr. Lyman Beecher, strove in vain to avert the 
 inevitable. They really believed that everything wouW go to destruction in case of 
 any material departure from the old order of civil and churchly affairs. The Hartford 
 Times was in the van of the Tolerationists, who succeeded in incorporating with 
 the constitution in 18 18 the three following sections, which were intended for the 
 protection of religious freedom : 
 
 1. "No preference shall be given by law to any Christian sect or mode of ivor- 
 shipr — Art. I, Sec. 4. 
 
 2. "No person shall by law be compelled to join or sicpport, nor be classed with, 
 or associate to, any congregation, church or religious association" — Art. 6, Sec. i. 
 
 2). " If any person shall choose to separate himself from the society or denomina- 
 tion of Christians to which he may belong, and shall leave a written notice thereof 
 with the clerk of such society, he shall thereupon be no longer liable for any future 
 expenses which may be inctirred by said society^ — Art. 6, Sec. 2. 
 
 Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, and non-sectarians followed the lead of the 
 Times in the effort to secure these provisions. The Federal organization survived 
 its overthrow for about ten years. The stately leaders still received the respectful 
 homage of the common people. But the substance of power had been wrested 
 from their grasp. The organization itself fell into the anti-Masonic party of Thur- 
 low Weed and his associates, and then was absorbed by that of the Whigs. The 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 251 
 
 remembrance of that exciting contest has almost faded out of the mind of the Com- 
 monwealth. The very aged alone recollect it. The evils apprehended have not been 
 suffered ; but, on the contrary, true religion and morality have made cheering 
 advances. 
 
 In 1833 the Hartford Times was again most vigorous and aggressive in its 
 demand for the repeal of an obnoxious and illiberal statute which denied to every 
 believer in the universal salvation of the human family the right to testify in a 
 court of justice. Gideon Welles proved to be an invaluable ally in the agitation. 
 Five sessions of the Legislature were held before the offensive law was stricken out 
 of the State code in 1833. Other enactments of essentially similar character were 
 successively the objects of the Times hostility, and ultimately suffered like oblitera- 
 tion. The law which prohibited the exhibition of a theatre or circus in Connecticut, 
 and the statute which prohibited, with fines and penalties, all servile labor on fast and 
 thanksgiving days, were of this nature. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Burr himself was called upon to participate in the legislation of the 
 State by election to the House of Representatives, in which he served for one session. 
 The circulation of the Weekly Times meanwhile was steadily increasing. With sound 
 logic, keen sarcasm, and effective ridicule, it attacked the " hard cider and log cabin" 
 methods of conducting electioneering canvasses ; and chose rather to deal with hard 
 facts and unchanging principles. It attained a circulation of the first rank. The 
 Daily Times also rose to the leadership of all its Connecticut contemporaries in 
 point of circulation, and also of positive influence upon the politics of the State. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Burr was an active and energetic protestor against the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise. In this attitude he stood almost alone. The Democratic 
 party, elated by its overwhelming triumph in 1852, was not in a mood to heed his 
 admonitions. He warned them that if the plans of the ambitious Stephen A. 
 Douglas were carried out, and the Missouri Compromise were repealed, the over- 
 throw of the Democratic party would certainly follow ; and that the resulting 
 sectional organizations would probably involve the country in civil war. His predic- 
 tions were discredited, even by local statesmen. Subsequent events terribly justified 
 them, and vindicated his wisdom and foresight. In i860 the Times supported the 
 Presidential candidacy of Brcckenridge and Lane. 
 
 In 1854 the Times manifested determined opposition to the enactment of the 
 Maine Law in Connecticut, as being inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions, 
 illiberal, and calculated to increase rather than to suppress the evils of intemperance. 
 Results, it is maintained, were in harmony v;ith prophecy. Hundreds of private 
 club-rooms were established. Liquors were introduced into many private families. 
 Vast numbers of young men secretly addicted themselves to the use of alcoholic 
 
252 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO PAL D I A . 
 
 liquors who would have shunned consumption at public bars and in saloons. The 
 Times made it a party question. The Republicans sustained the Maine Law: the 
 Democrats opposed it. The editors of the Times, who were practically temperance 
 men, were charged by professional opponents with being " rummies." Thorough trial 
 was given to the law, and even its friends were satisfied that, as a reformatory meas- 
 ure, it was at least a comparative failure. 
 
 While the Maine Law controversy was pending, the Times, under the editorial 
 conduction of Mr. Burr, took decided ground against the Know-Nothing party, which 
 held the reins of civil power in Connecticut in 1854-6. It declared that no set of 
 men had the right to govern either the State or the country in secret. It procured 
 and published the constitution and by-laws of the objectionable association. It sent 
 reporters into all the lodges at Hartford, and gave their proceedings to the public. 
 The names of members and applicants for admission were published. What was 
 done in secret was thus proclaimed upon the house-tops. The anger of the Know- 
 Nothing leaders was unbounded. Publicity proved fatal to their power, which waned 
 and became extinct under repeated exposures. 
 
 The independence of thought and action which had characterized Mr. Burr in 
 successive social and political agitations did not fail him when honest differences of 
 opinion arose between himself and old esteemed co-laborers. John M. Niles, the 
 first editor of the paper, and afterward Postmaster-General under President Van 
 Buren — also United States Senator for two terms — continued to contribute editorially 
 to its columns until the disagreement between himself and the proprietor about the 
 tariff of 1846. Mr. Niles opposed the tariff, which, according to the official figures of 
 the Treasury Department, yielded a revenue of about $62,000,000, or more than twice 
 as much as he had contended it would. Niles gradually separated himself from the 
 Democrats of the day, and on the formation of the Republican party was the first 
 to move for the establishment of the Evening Press, a Republican paper that was 
 afterward merged in the Courant, 
 
 From 1830 to 1846 the Hon. Gideon Welles greatly enriched the columns of 
 the Times by his trenchant and able pen. He and Mr. Burr were cono-enial 
 yokefellows in party management. Welles was one of the earliest "Jackson" men 
 in Connecticut. President Lincoln, with his usual shrewdness and knowledo-e of 
 men, afterward made him Secretary of the Navy, in which position he demon- 
 strated his wisdom and sagacity in many critical emergencies. 
 
 Before the great Civil War began, the patriotic dread of such a terrible calamity 
 led Mr. Burr to exhaust all means of argument and persuasion to avert it. He 
 abhorred the selfishness and greed which aimed to enrich themselves at the cost 
 of national suffering and poverty. Like Horace Greeley he had no liking for '.'a 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 253 
 
 republic whereof one half was pinned to the other half by bayonets." He opposed 
 secession — a proceeding which nothing could justify — and plainly told the South 
 what it might expect if it should defiantly attempt to fight its own battle outside 
 the Union. He approved Lincoln's proclamation of the necessity and duty of collect- 
 ing the revenue and enforcing the laws within the seceded States. He fearlessly 
 criticised men and measures during the season of radical ascendancy at Washington. 
 He hailed every promise of peace to be effected by reason and negotiation instead 
 of the sword. When the end of actual hostilities arrived, he unsparingly condemned 
 the self-stultification of the Republicans, who declared certain States to be out of 
 the Union in order to effect the adoption of war amendments to the national 
 constitution. Exclusion and secession were alike repugnant to his opinions, and in 
 his estimation were equally disunionist measures. 
 
 In the year 1866, A. E. Burr was again elected to the popular branch of 
 the State Legislature, and served with efficiency, to the satisfaction of his constitu- 
 ents. He has been often and urgently solicited to accept public honors, such as 
 election to Congress, but has declined on the ground of individual preference 
 for the pursuits of journalism. He is said to be the oldest active journalist in 
 the State if not in the country. Forty years of uninterrupted professional practice 
 have not only imparted unusual deftness and skill in the use of his vigorous pen, 
 but have clothed him with a power akin to that which the king-making Earl of 
 Warwick won by the sword. Though refusing official posts himself, he has made 
 many men what against his opposition they would not have been, namely Congress- 
 men, Governors, and incumbents of other positions. 
 
 The Hartford Times is as much Alfred E. Burr as the New York Times was 
 Henry J. Raymond, or as the New York Evening Post was William Cullen Bryant. 
 It is Alfred E. Burr speaking his deep-seated convictions on matters of importance 
 to locality. State, and nation ; and that with a candor and ability that command 
 universal respect. For thirty years his counsels have been potent with his political 
 party in Connecticut, and have not infrequently been the means of its victories at 
 the polls. In local affairs he has always exhibited the keenest interest. He is the 
 advocate of progress, and the exponent of broad and wise plans of public usefulness. 
 To him, more than to any other editor, and indeed in opposition to some, the 
 establishment of the excellent High School at Hartford is due. He pleaded for, and 
 pressed the construction of the city water-works, and the introduction of pure water 
 from the mountain, six miles west of the city. The beautiful Bushnell Park is also 
 largely indebted to him for existence. His, too, was the project of buying the 
 thirteen acres of ground, together with the buildings, owned by the corporation of 
 Trinity College, The Rev. Dr. Bushnell emphatically affirmed that the purchase was 
 
254 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.I£D I A . 
 
 finally accomplished through the efforts of the Times and its senior editor, Alfred E. 
 Burr. The price paid by the city to Trinity College was $6oo,ooo. The ground was 
 then tendered to the State for the site of its new Capitol. Mr. Burr was appointed 
 President of the Commission to whom the erection of the new building was 
 entrusted. That beautiful edifice cost $2,500,000. The money was drawn from the 
 Treasury, and disbursed by the president of the commission, under the law of the 
 State, to the satisfaction of the citizens, and also of the Legislature, which passed 
 resolutions of compliment to the commissioners. 
 
 In all local improvements, beneficent undertakings, and public-spirited measures 
 that tend to the promotion of civil order and welfare, he has been conspicuous ; and 
 has infused the same spirit into liis associates. Personal character and eminent ability 
 have always commanded for him the profound respect of his fellow-citizens ; while 
 sterling honesty in all private and public relations has conducted him to gratifying 
 and assured prosperity. 
 
 The Times enjoys the largest circulation of any periodical in Connecticut ; and 
 will doubtless retain the proud pre-eminence while its reputation for enterprise, 
 promptitude, and ability in collecting and discussing current news is maintained at 
 its present altitude. 
 
 While Alfred E. Burr discharges the duties of senior editor of the Hartford 
 Times, he receives the experienced assistance of his brother, F. L. Burr, and also 
 of his son, W. O. Burr. J. G. Belden is assistant-editor, George P. Mahen, news 
 editor, W. Leavy, reporter of court and city news, and Warren H. Burr of city 
 news. Dr. Nathan Mayer is the musical and dramatic critic. Subordinate assistants 
 are employed in various departments, and paid correspondents maintained in many 
 Connecticut towns. Three correspondents in New York, and one — often two— in 
 Washington, keep the readers of the Times thoroughly abreast of all national and 
 metropolitan occurrences. 
 
 Mr. Burr was married in 1841 to Miss Sarah A. Booth, of Meriden, Conn. 
 
-ii, 
 
 ^::^i>^?€.-^/C 2?-v 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C L O F.-E D I A . 255 
 
 »AWLEY, GEORGE BENJAMIN, M.D., of Hartford. Born in Bridgeport, 
 Conn., February 13th, 1812. His father, Abram Hawley, was a native of 
 U tiie same town, and of the fifth generation in the hne of direct descent 
 from Joseph Hawley, the first American ancestor, who was born in 
 Parwici'S:, Derbyshire, England, in 1603, landed near Boston in 1629, and died at 
 Stratford, Conn., in 1690. His mother, whose maiden name was Alice Burton, was 
 also of Connecticut origin. 
 
 Dr. Hawley prepared for college at Goshen, Conn., entered Yale in 1829, and 
 graduated with the xlass of 1833. Electing the practice of the healing art, he 
 pursued the usual course of preliminary medical studies in the Yale Medical School, 
 and graduated therefrorn in 1836. He then became the assistant physician, under 
 Dr. Silas Fuller, at the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, and held that relation 
 until 1840, in which year he settled in general professional practice at Hartford. 
 For thirty-nine years he has uninterruptedly prosecuted his beneficent labors, and is 
 now the senior active physician in that capital, and also one of the first class in 
 point of reputation for accomplished ability and brilliant success. Gynaecology and 
 obstetrics constitute his specialties, and in bath he has a very extensive and successful 
 practice. 
 
 While an ardent and persistent toiler in the ordinary departments of medical 
 usefulness, Dr. Hawley has taken the deepest and most benefactive interest in the 
 several eleemosynary institutions related to his profession. In 1854, he was one of 
 the prime movers in the establishment and incorporation of the Hartford Hospital, 
 of which the site was selected in 1855, and the cornerstone laid by the Governor 
 of Connecticut, in presence of the legislature and many distinguished citizens, in 
 1857. The superstructure was erected in 1858, and the whole edifice dedicated in 
 1859. Dr. Hawley's name appears in the list of donors to the institution, also as 
 a member of the Executive Committee, and of the Board of Consulting Physicians. 
 He still sustains the latter important relation to the hospital, and is actively identified 
 with its management. At the dedication, he was one of the principal speakers, and 
 in his address revealed thorough acquaintance with the history, objects, and methods 
 of public charities. He happily contrasted the present with the past in respect of 
 provision for the sick and poor, and showed the superiority of the present by the 
 fact that while the cultured and civilized nations of antiquity, like the Greeks and 
 Romans, immortalized themselves by their marvellous genius and splendid deeds, 
 they provided no place for the sick and afflicted, but left them to die deserted and 
 alone. Wounded warriors were not exceptions to the general rule, and the poor 
 were left to perish in utter neglect. Christianity alone is entitled to the credit of 
 developing sympathy for the sorrowing, and of creating institutions for the relief of 
 
2s6 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P^ D I A . 
 
 the needy and destitute. He spoke of their origin as public charities in the reign 
 of the Emperor Justinian, of their further development in the Middle Ages, and of 
 the immense sums now lavished by the great centres of European civilization, like 
 Paris and London, upon their eleemosynary establishments. The hygienic statistics, 
 adduced by Dr. Hawley on that occasion, were of remarkable interest and value. 
 
 In the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Executive Committee — of which Dr. 
 Ilawley is a member — of the Hartford Hospital, is a statement of the progress 
 made by the training school for nurses connected with the institution. Competent 
 women are trained therein, for a period of two- years, and after passing a final 
 examination, receive diplomas, certifying to their knowledge of nursing, their ability 
 and good character. The practical character of an educated, progressive physician 
 is admirably illustrated by his zeal in the foundation and supervision of a school 
 like this. For want of skilled nurses many most valuable lives have been lost, 
 that might otherwise have been prolonged to benefit society for many years. The 
 efforts and prescriptions of the highest medical skill are not unfrequently made 
 wholly nugatory by the ignorance and carelessness of the persons in charge of the 
 sick. When the school is fully established, physicians may telegraph from any part 
 of the State to the Hartford Hospital, and be supplied with skilled and careful 
 nurses, at moderate cost. Already the public begins to appreciate the value of such 
 a school, and will necessarily appreciate it more and more highly as it experiences 
 the benefit resulting from the employment of the graduates. 
 
 The philanthropic and public spirit of Dr. Hawley have been further illustrated by 
 his activity in the establishment of the " Inebriate Asylum at Walnut Hill." It originated 
 proximately with a committee appointed by the Connecticut State Medical Society, 
 in 1873, to procure from the Legislature an act for the reformation of persons of 
 intemperate habits. Of that committee Dr. Hawley was a member, and was after- 
 ward appointed, by resolution of the Legislature, a member of the committee instructed 
 to report on the necessity and expediency of an inebriate asylum, and to present to 
 the next Legislature an appropriate act for the establishment of such an asylum, 
 if, in their opinion, such an institution were needed in the State. At the request 
 of this committee, the Legislature of 1874 incorporated the "Connecticut Reformatory 
 Home," which name was changed by the Legislature of 1875 to the "Asylum at 
 Walnut Hill," and an act was also passed to commit and control the inebriate, 
 dipsomaniac, and habitual drunkard, in an inebriate asylum within the State. Dr. 
 Hawley at that time served, as he does at present, on the executive committee 
 and on the board of directors chosen at the annual meeting. " Walnut Hill was 
 first opened for patients October ist, 1877. As there were no accommodations for this 
 purpose on the Walnut Hill farm, a large and commodious house was temporarily hired, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 257 
 
 and furnished." Two years' experience has greatly strengthened the confidence of the 
 benevolent projectors and managers in the soundness of the postulates laid down 
 when they began their noble work : " First, that the drunkard can be cured ; second, 
 that inebriate asylums have proved themselves to be a blessing to the intemperate, 
 and a relief to the community ; third, that inebriate asylums lessen the number of 
 patients in insane asylums." So profoundly enlisted have mind and heart become in 
 the grand experiment, that they are " willing not only to devote their energies for 
 the success of the institution without the least hope of pecuniary reward, but are 
 willing to raise, by subscription, $25,000 toward paying for the land and erecting a 
 suitable building on the Walnut Hill farm for the care and restoration of the 
 intemperate." Faith, in the example of Dr. Hawley and his associates, is certainly by 
 works made perfect. 
 
 In 1840 he married Miss Zerviah C. Fuller, of Hartford, who died November 
 19th, 1847, leaving issue in one son, George F. Hawley, who graduated as M.D. 
 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at New York, in 1867, and who is 
 now associated with his father in medical practice. Dr. Hawley was again married, 
 July 19th, 1848, to Sarah Danforth, daughter of Sherman Boardman, of Hartford, 
 and had issue by her in the person of one son, William Sherman Hawley, who is 
 now deceased. 
 
 17 
 
,58 B.IOGRAFHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 *iW%rAVEN, HENRY PHILEMON, of New London, Conn. "A Model 
 *Kl Superintendent" of Sunday-schools, who found an admirable and appreci- 
 JM'pli* ative biographer in H. Clay Trumbull, editor of the Sunday-School Times. 
 f From his " Sketch of The Life, Character and Methods of Work of Henry 
 
 P. Haven, of the International Lesson Com77tittee;' the materials for this abbreviated 
 biography have been drawn. 
 
 Henry P. Haven was born of substantial New England stock, in Norwich, 
 Conn., February nth, 18 15. When he was four years old he suffered the loss of 
 his father, and his mother— widowed a second time— was left alone to provide for 
 five children. The advantage of a collegiate training to a young man is, according 
 to President Porter of Yale, that he learns to do what he ought to do at a 
 proper time, whether he wants to do it or not. This substantial advantage young 
 Haven received from the very circumstances in which he was providentially placed. 
 At the age of eight he did nearly all the farm work on the homestead, and did 
 not obtain his first suit of new clothes until he was fifteen years old. His scho- 
 lastic education was necessarily defective, and did not extend beyond that imparted 
 by the imperfect public schools of the period, and by two terms of instruction at 
 a select school, where the tuition was five dollars a term. 
 
 It was to the Sunday-school of the First Congregational Church of Norwich 
 Town that he was most indebted for the influences which, in conjunction with 
 those of his godly New England home, shaped his character, and directed his course 
 to the highest and best ends. He often used to say that it was the Sunday- 
 school which made him what he was, and this grateful conviction doubtless 
 aided to make him what he became. In a little Sunday-school, taught by Harriet 
 Lathrop — afterwards the wife of Rev. Dr. Myron Winslow of Ceylon — he received 
 some of his first religious impressions, and learned to love that agency by which 
 he subsequently did so much for the children's Saviour. 
 
 When young Haven was only fifteen years of age, his mother removed to 
 New London. There he was indentured to Major Thomas W. Williams, a promi- 
 nent ship-owner and merchant of that seaport. He was to have ninety dollars for 
 his first year's wages, one hundred and twenty for each of the next two years, and 
 one hundred and fifty a year for the remaining period of his apprenticeship. The 
 narrowness of his income gave him no anxiety. His care was rather to fill his 
 place than his pocket. He had already learned the lesson of doing whatsoever 
 his hand found to do with his might. When the book-keeper gave up his position 
 in the business. Haven asked if he might try his hand at keeping the books. In 
 reply, he was told that he was quite too young to manage them ; but, on press- 
 ing his point, permission was at last given to make the attempt. He improved 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 259 
 
 the opportunity, worked early and late, and on at least one occasion was at the 
 store until two in the morning, and back again for a new day at four. With such 
 dogged persistence, backed by a splendid physical constitution, and guided by infallible 
 moral principles, success in life^under ordinary conditions — was simply a question 
 of time. He soon became too valuable to warrant his employers in keeping him 
 to the pecuniary terms of the original contract. At nineteen his salary was unex- 
 pectedly raised to four hundred dollars a year, and on the expiration of his 
 indentures, he was employed as confidential clerk at five hundred dollars. Two 
 years later he became a partner in the business establishment, and sustained that 
 relation thenceforward to the day of his death. Work, hard work, persevering work 
 — another name for genius, according to some — was the principal cause of his fair 
 start in business life. Before his apprenticeship closed he had made a public con- 
 fession of his faith in Christ by uniting with the Second Congregational Church in 
 New London. He was already a Sunday school teacher, having entered upon the 
 duties of that office at the age of fifteen. 
 
 One Sunday morning in May, 1836, Mr. Haven, then twenty-one years old, asked 
 his superintendent if he knew of any place where neighborhood mission work was 
 needed in the country about New London. A district in Waterford was at once 
 pointed out where rum-selling, drunkenness, and licentiousness were rife among the 
 scanty population. It was a sink of iniquity. Haven immediately began a Sunday- 
 school there, which he maintained for about forty years until he entered into heavenly 
 rest. Nine scholars and seven teachers constituted the humble and unpromising 
 beginning. But out of that plain and unattractive seed were to grow plants of 
 righteousness and flowers of praise — the glory of the Church and the grace of the 
 nation. Had he been in charge of the Bethany school in Philadelphia, or of that 
 in Akron, he could not have been more intelligently enthusiastic. 
 
 " The Waterford school was carefully classified. Scholars who belonged together 
 were put together. Teachers were assigned to duty according to their special fitness. 
 There was a uniform lesson in the school. All studied the same passage of Scrip- 
 ture. Exercises of worship were an important part of the school service — exercises 
 in which teachers and scholars had a part with the superintendent. A select number 
 of the Psalms were printed expressly for responsive reading in that school. Ap- 
 propriate hymns were also printed for use there. Portions of Scripture were memo- 
 rized and recited by all in unison. A registry of the school membership was 
 opened at the start ; also a record of the attendance of each teacher and scholar 
 separately ; a running history of the school work and progress ; and a special his- 
 torical record of each member of the school. A teachers' meeting and a normal 
 class were likewise started on the first day of the new Sunday-school. After the 
 
26o BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 ordinary session of the school, the teachers were brought together in a class. The 
 next Sunday's lesson was taken up and studied by them under their superintendent's 
 lead — studied with a view to ascertaining both the substance of the lesson and the 
 best methods of its teaching. A judicious system of marks and rewards was intro- 
 duced into the school. All these plans looked to thoroughness and permanency. 
 There was a completeness and symmetry about them which are only too rare in 
 similar work at the present day." 
 
 The different details of this laborious plan were subsequently carried out, with 
 such modifications as experience might suggest. They characterize Henry P. Haven 
 as a man of originality and wisdom in the department of Sunday-school methods. 
 
 When the question of winter sessions of the Sunday-school came up, he quickly 
 
 settled it by deciding that the school should be kept open so long as one teacher 
 
 and two scholars would attend. Religious inquiry meetings were often held after the 
 
 sessions closed, and frequently resulted in bringing scholars to decide for Christ. 
 
 " Thus the years went by. Mr. Haven's business responsibilities increased. He 
 
 married and had a family to look after. He was called to varied and engrossing 
 
 duties by his town, his city, his State. Important private trusts were confided to 
 
 him. He was chosen superintendent of the Sunday-school of his church in New 
 
 London. He neglected none of these responsibilities ; but for none of them, nor for 
 
 all, did he suspend his work at his ' Gilead Sunday-school ' in Waterford." In May, 
 
 1 86 1, the harvest reaped from that unsparing sowing was most pleasingly manifest 
 
 Not once a year on the average, had the school intermitted a session, including 
 
 occasional suspension on account of funerals in the neighborhood. "On 1099 of the 
 
 1279 sessions of the school had Mr. Haven himself been present, notwithstanding 
 
 his varied private and public labors, which rendered his occasional absence inevitable. 
 
 Of the 418 persons who had up to that time been members of the school, more 
 
 than 100 had united with various churches elsewhere ; while four who had come into 
 
 the school as scholars were already in the gospel ministry or were preparing for it. 
 
 Yet the entire membership of the school had averaged during its twenty-five years 
 
 only thirty-seven — twenty-nine scholars and eight teachers." 
 
 After Mr. Haven had been more than twenty years in charge of the neighbor- 
 hood Sunday-school at Waterford, he was urged to accept the superintendency of the 
 Sunday-school connected with his own church in New London. This he consented 
 to do, and held its sessions in the morning, and those of the Gilead school in 
 the afternoon. Entering upon his new duties in January, 1858, his city Sunday- 
 school soon became as much of a model in one sphere, as his country school had 
 been in another. Punctuality, constant occupation, a cheerful and reverent spirit, 
 and unity of exercises characterized its assemblies. Beneficence was carefully culti- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENC YC LO P^D I A . 261 
 
 vated by Mr. Haven. A " Henry Martyn Missionary Association" was organized for 
 
 the support of home and foreign missions ; a " Building Aid Cent Society" was 
 
 instituted to assist in the erection of a new church, and systematic and consecrated 
 
 giving was encouraged by the introduction of the " envelope system." The Bible 
 
 was the text-book of the school. Tracts and other religious reading were often 
 
 judiciously distributed, and the salvation of the pupils diligently and wisely sought 
 
 in and through the use of these and all appropriate means. Classes of inquirers 
 
 and young converts were banded together for mutual prayer and conversation. The 
 
 pastor of the church, the Rev. Dr. George B. Wilcox, was accustomed to attend 
 
 the school sessions, and also to preach to the school on one Sunday evening of 
 
 each month. " Once a month also, the Sunday-school concert, with its general 
 
 exercises of worship, its topical recitation of Bible texts, and its addresses to the 
 
 young, occupied a Sunday evening." The fame of this Sunday-school spread abroad 
 
 throughout the United States. " Its opening and closing exercises were copied far 
 
 and near," and did much " toward giving larger prominence to the element of 
 
 worship in the Sunday-school, and in shaping the general character of the exercises 
 
 of the superintendent's desk throughout the United States." 
 
 Mr. HaVfen did not stumble into the right way of overcoming obstacles, nor 
 did he build up an abiding structure without a wise plan. He did his work in 
 his own wa3^ prepared himself thoroughly for whatever he had to do, made intel- 
 ligent use of an admirably selected library, gave amply sufficient time to prepara- 
 tion, and was methodical to the last degree in study, as in everything else. In 
 his library, as in his schools, everything had a place, and everything was in its 
 place. If materials for his purposes did not offer themselves, or were not procur- 
 able, like a mechanic who manufactures his own tools, he provided them for him- 
 self. Hymn-books and lesson papers were often obtained in this way. 
 
 With the teachers he frequently held mutual counsel, and thus also studied to 
 make his school a unit, and effective to the highest possible degree. He taught 
 them how to teach, and in the kindest manner sought to revive waning interest, 
 and to stimulate flagging zeal. " The superintendent who has not started a 
 teachers' meeting in his school," Mr. Trumbull affirms, "has not begun to live as 
 he ought to. The superintendent who has no teachers' meeting is not ready to 
 die." " In seasons of special religious interest Mr. Haven would gather his teachers 
 at his home for consultation and prayer over the scholars of their charge ; or he 
 would ask them to visit their scholars personally, to talk and pray with them con- 
 cerning their spiritual welfare." " He did most by bringing others to do more. His 
 best work was in so skilfully keeping others at work. That is always the w^ay of 
 the wise leader of men." 
 
262 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 " There was a system of training and a process of indoctrination carried on in 
 the general exercises of Mr. Haven's school as led by him from the desk. Important 
 portions of Scripture and uninspired formularies of religious truth were thereby intelli- 
 gently committed to memory. The successive arrangements of Bible readings and 
 recitations in the opening and closing services were made to exhibit the leading 
 doctrines of the evangelical churches in the very words of the Bible. At different 
 times these proof-texts — read or recited for months together at the opening of the 
 school session in both New London and Waterford — showed God the Creator; the 
 sinfulness of man ; the conditions of forgiveness ; the nature and work of Jesus 
 Christ ; the way of salvation ; the Church of Christ ; the resurrection ; the future 
 state of the lost and of the redeemed ; the duties of man ; the joys of Christian 
 service ; and other elementary religious tenets. And there were frequent recitations 
 of the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, choice psalms, and selections from the 
 Epistles ; together with the Apostles' Creed, the Gloria Patri, the Te Deum Lauda- 
 mus, and the like. In this way the end now aimed at in what is sometimes called 
 the "supplemental lesson," or a course of systematic instruction in doctrine, in 
 addition to the Bible lessons of the International series, was secured by Mr. Haven 
 in his Sunday-school work for long years before his death." He knew the difference 
 between the " old paths" and the " old ruts," and, while adhering to the one, kept 
 out of the other. 
 
 He cultivated close personal acquaintance with his scholars, and often invited 
 them to his house in the city. " Refreshments were prepared for them ; and there 
 was an opportunity of closer personal acquaintance than would be possible at the 
 school. Then there would be a summer sail up the river for a picnic gathering in 
 the woods above and a New Year's assembling in the chapel for pleasant social 
 exercises, not distinctly religious, whereby the scholars and their teachers might come 
 to know each other and their superintendent more familiarly. To promote the pur- 
 pose of these gatherings, an ' Agreeable Committee ' was formed, to see that all were 
 acquainted, and had a good time together." Genial and hearty, Mr. Haven's nature 
 showed itself to advantage in these gatherings. He could laugh right merrily when 
 there was a chance for a good laugh. His aim in all these entertainments was to 
 promote the spiritual good of his guests. He valued organization and co-work for 
 the culture and development of Christian graces, and, as early as 1842, formed a 
 " Religious Class" — whose plan was not unlike that of the Methodist class-meeting — 
 in connection with his little Waterford school. Twenty-five years later a similar 
 class was formed by him in his New London school. Most gratifying results fol. 
 lowed in each case. The young ladies of his school were also organized into the 
 " Schauffler Missionary Society," as auxiliary to the Woman's Board of Missions at 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 263 
 
 Boston. The best and most efficient secretaries obtainable were employed in both 
 his schools, and did their work well, and in business-like manner. Records of all 
 the pupils and teachers were preserved with scrupulous care. " The annual report" 
 of his New London school "for 1865, reviewed the connection of the school with 
 the struggle to maintain the national authority, and gave a list of its sixty-six mem- 
 bers who were in the army or navy during the war-^including two colonels, one 
 major, one chaplain, seven captains, seven lieutenants, in the army, and ten officers 
 or men in the navy — together with a personal sketch of each one who had fallen 
 in defence of his country." That, certainly, was a record of which any school in the 
 world might be justifiably proud. 
 
 Henry P. Haven was no less successful as a business man than as a Sunday- 
 school superintendent. He was "not slothful in business," while "fervent in spirit, 
 serving the Lord." " R. G. Pardee used to say that a Christian railroad superin- 
 tendent could usually superintend a Sunday-school satisfactorily ; for similar quali- 
 fications are needed in the two spheres. It is unmistakably true that in our 
 cities and larger towns throughout the country, the most efficient Sunday-school 
 superintendents include in their number some of the leading merchants, manufac- 
 turers, bankers, insurance officers, and railroad men of their several communities." 
 
 Strong, zealous, ambitious, persistent, young Haven, under God, commanded 
 business success in early life, and never lost his mastery of circumstances to the 
 close of his noble and useful course. The very carefulness of his thought for the 
 prosperity of his schools and the salvation of his pupils, the adaptation of means 
 to ends in order to compass his object, the fertility of expedients it cultivated ; 
 the wonderful measure of permanent success with which he was rewarded ; the 
 refreshing change these philanthropic exercises gave to his faculties ; — all conspired 
 to strengthen his powers of mind and body for secular business, and to make 
 him one of the most eminent merchants of his time and country. The special 
 business of Major Williams's shipping house, in which he began his career as a 
 clerk, was the whale and seal fishery ; a business which developes the highest 
 qualities of manhood, and the first business in which Americans commanded 
 the admiration of Edmund Burke and of the mother country for their enterprise 
 and daring. 
 
 When twenty-three years old " Mr. Haven began business for himself as the 
 head of the firm of Haven & Smith ; his former employer. Major WiUiams, 
 being a silent member of the firm during the terms of his service in Congress. 
 In 1846, Mr. Williams resumed his place in the business, and the firm was 
 Williams & Haven. Other partners came in later, and the firm became Williams, 
 Haven «& Co. For thirty-five years, however, Mr. Haven was the directing and 
 
264 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 managing head of the house. In that time he sent out more than two hun- 
 dred vessels, large and small, in pursuit of whales and seals, and sea-elephants. 
 When whales grew scarce in the Southern oceans, he was a fresh pioneer in the 
 Greenland fisheries. He was earliest in sealing and elephanting on South Georgia 
 Island, east of Cape Horn. He was first in the experiment of a steam whaler; 
 and again, of a steam sealing vessel. He was always sagacious apd enterprising, 
 and on the watch for new ventures and new methods of winning success in 
 his business. A voyage made by one of his steam-whalers in 1864-5, is said 
 to have been " the best ever made by an American whaler." The entire cost 
 of the vessel with her outfits was $35,800. She was gone a little more than 
 fifteen months, returning with a cargo of oil and bone, valued, at market prices, 
 at $150,000. 
 
 In May, 1838, Haven and Smith sent out the bark Chelsea, with a schooner for 
 her tender, to Kerguelen's Land, for the oil of the sea-elephants abounding there. She 
 was followed by many other vessels, sent out under Mr. Haven's management. 
 Together, in the course of thirty-five years, they brought into port oil valued at 
 $3,000,000. Another branch of ocean trade prosecuted by his firm was that of 
 bringing guano from islands near the equator in the western Pacific Ocean. In 
 this also they displayed the same qualities of foresight, wisdom, energy, and daring, 
 and were rewarded with marvellous success. Large outlay, great rist, and peculiar 
 administrative abihty were all involved in this special business. 
 
 When, in 1867, negotiations were in progress for the purchase of Alaska, Mr. 
 Haven corresponded with Secretary Seward to learn if citizens of the United States 
 would be free to hunt seal in that Territory when its transfer was completed. Receiv- 
 ing an affirmative reply, he dispatched his active partner, Mr. R. H. Chapell, thither; 
 and there they effected the first landing after the purchase, and raised the first 
 American flag. As a result of their venture they soon had 45,000 seal skins for 
 shipment to England, according to the orders of Mr. Haven. Senator Dawes, of 
 Massachusetts, admiringly remarked, " that it was one of the brightest business move- 
 ments he had ever known." 
 
 "After a while a combination was formed between the shipowners. East and 
 West, and a lease, dated August 3d, 1870, was obtained by them from the United 
 States Government, of St. Paul's and St. George's islands, with the exclusive right 
 of seal-catching there, under certain restrictions. Mr. Haven was active in securing 
 this lease; and he was a leading man in the councils of the new company from its 
 organization until his death. The revenue to the Government from this company is 
 more than $300,000 per annum. The company provides the native Aleutians, em- 
 ployed in the seal fishery, with houses and with schools, free of charge, and with 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 265 
 
 all articles of necessity at San Francisco market rates. It also, by terms of its 
 charter, protects them from the curse of intoxicating liquors. 
 
 " With all else that he had to do Mr. Haven found time to show his hearty 
 sympathy with the various scientific explorations of the Northern seas during the last 
 twenty years of his life, and to render substantial assistance to some of the 
 adventurous spirits who engaged so chivalrously in the search for the remains of Sir 
 John Franklin's expedition." To Captain Hall, particularly, he generously tendered a 
 free passage to the Arctic seas in their bark, the George Henry, to which was 
 attached as tender the famous Rescue, which had been consort to the Advance, in 
 1850-1, in the De Haven Arctic expedition. In 1864 Captain Hall again sailed for 
 the same regions in Mr. Haven's vessel, the Monticello. Captains Buddington and 
 Tyson, first mate Hubbard C. Chester, and the Esquimaux " Joe," of Polaris fame, 
 were all men who had seen service in Mr. Haven's whahng vessels, and were 
 with the gallant Hall when he lost his life. It was a standing order of Williams 
 and Haven to their whaling captains to take up and set down the Arctic explo- 
 rers at any point desired by them and to supply them freely with whatever 
 stores they needed. 
 
 The ocean business of Mr. Haven extended to almost every sea. The loss of 
 vessels did not seem to disturb, nor their success to elate him unduly. Successful in 
 the management of his own affairs, he was often urged to administer in the business 
 interests of others, and especially in the settlement of great bankrupt estates. " In 
 i860 he was chosen President of the New London Northern Railroad Company, at 
 a time when the affairs of that corporation seemed to require the undivided ener- 
 gies of a superior mind. He took the place, and for nearly six years filled it with 
 eminent ability. He was an .original corporator of the Mariner's Savings Bank, of 
 the National Bank of Commerce, and of the Equitable Trust Company of New 
 London, being also a director in each institution, and vice-president of the first-named 
 from the time of its organization until his death. At the time of his death he 
 was also President of the New London City National Bank." "The relieving change 
 of mental activity necessitated by the totally different spheres of toil and care in his 
 religious and secular occupations probably enabled him to do more, and to do it 
 better, than if he had confined himself to secular occupations alone. He was the 
 stronger for his own work, through not neglecting the Lord's work." 
 
 Mr. Haven was an excellent and effective lay preacher of the Gospel, an enthu- 
 siastic and most helpful colaborer in Sunday-school conventions, a member of the 
 International Lesson Committee appointed to select "a course of Bible lessons" for 
 the use of evangelical Sunday-schools " for a series of years not exceeding seven." 
 His public services were not restricted to Sunday-school work. He was the origi- 
 
266 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 nator in New London, of evening-schools, for the benefit of those whose occupations 
 forbade their attendance at the public day-schools. He was the faithful and efficient 
 chairman of the Board of Education of his city, a zealous and friendly worker for 
 the State Normal School, and an active participant in teachers' institutes throughout 
 the State. With the great benevolent societies of the country he was also identified. 
 The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign missions confided in him for 
 counsel, and looked to him for active service as one of its valued and efficient 
 corporate members, with no unimportant place on the committees of its annual 
 sessions. He was a vice-president of the American Sunday-School Union, of the 
 American Bible Society, and of the American Tract Society. He was the very fore- 
 front of the Systematic Beneficence Society. Of the American College and Education 
 Society he was the honored president at the time of his death. 
 
 " In the county, the State, and the national conferences and councils of the 
 Congregational churches, Mr. Haven was for years a felt and recognized power. . . 
 In October, 1875, he was a representative, together with the Rev. Dr. Joseph P. 
 Thompson, of the National Council, at the Congregational Union of England and 
 Wales, at its annual meeting in London," and delivered a brief and fitting address 
 that was felicitously congruous with the history of the Anglo-Saxon Congregational 
 churches, and with the proprieties of the occasion. To British ears it was very grati- 
 fying to hear that three thousand y\merican Congregational churches, in the midst of 
 unusual business depression, " were contributing annually five millions of dollars to the 
 support of our missionaries in heathen countries, while more than that amount is 
 raised for our home missions." 
 
 Mr. Haven was a model citizen as well as superintendent, had pronounced 
 political opinions, expressed them at the polls, canvassed personally and by proxy 
 before important elections, served on juries, and, in a word, discharged all his duties 
 to the State and to the nation. For a time he was mayor of his city. He also 
 represented his town in the Legislature, and in 1873 was the Republican candidate 
 for Governor of Connecticut. With strange infatuation and blind wickedness, his 
 opponents made his Christian activity a ground of objection to his election ; entirely 
 ignoring the historical fact that Christian activity has made the commonwealth what 
 it is, and that on its operation the future weal of the State must depend. Mr. 
 Haven was defeated at the polls, less to his own loss by far, than to that of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 A most liberal and unostentatious giver, delighting in his own benefactions 
 judicious in their bestowment, wanting " a timber-head in every ship," and employing 
 others to assist in the administration of his beneficence, he proved the truth of the 
 Saviour's maxim : " It is more blessed to give than to receive." As a business man 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 267 
 
 he was remarkable for his power of fixing his facuhies at will entirely upon a 
 single subject, of passing from one to another, of being "twenty different men to 
 twenty different objects in one day, if necessary." Secretive, methodical, versatile 
 mirthful, and humorous in public, his virtues shone most benignly within the charm- 
 ing circle of his own home. Method and system pervaded that household, religion 
 was in his home atmosphere, hearty love for the Bible was cherished there, his 
 favorite truths were drawn from it, and in its light he appeared to be an Israelite 
 " without guile." 
 
 When twenty-five years old Mr. Haven was married to Elizabeth Lucas Doug- 
 las, of Waterford. Four children were the fruit of the union, one of whom died 
 in infancy, and one in young manhood. The latter, Thomas Williams Haven, who 
 was in partnership with his father, died in the summer of 1870, at the age of twenty- 
 three. His death was a severe blow to his father. Other bereavements rapidly 
 followed. Repeated afflictions were sanctified to his spiritual welfare, and increased 
 his fitness for the celestial city. Yet he endured in active and efficient service 
 "unto the end." On the evening of Saturday, April 29th, 1876, he led his teachers' 
 meeting, as his wont was, in his home library-room. " The next morning he was 
 up early, in preparation for the enjoyments and duties of the Lord's day. But his 
 toil on earth was at an end. His day of rest had come. Before the hour of his 
 early Sunday-school he was asleep in Jesus." His memory is precious. 
 
268 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 j^ipiCHOLS, DAVID PHILIP, of Danbury, ex-Treasurer of Connecticut. Born 
 in Danbury, July 7th, 18 10. His father, Piiilip Nichols, was a native of 
 Greenfield Hill, in the town of Fairfield, Conn., and a manufacturer of hats 
 in Danbury. David Nichols, his grandfather, was also a native of Greenfield 
 Hill, a farmer by occupation, and an influential member of the Congregational Church 
 in that place, at the time that the Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., afterward President 
 of Yale College, was the pastor. The Nichols family belong to the sturdy Anglo- 
 Saxon stock, whose strength and enterprise have placed them in the van of the 
 world's progress. 
 
 Philip Nichols, the hat manufacturer, was brought up at Greenfield Hill, 
 received his scholastic education in the district schools, and evinced marked intelli- 
 gence and promise. He died of epidemic fever in the town of Danbury, in 1813, at 
 the premature age of 26 ; and left a widow and three children, of whom David PhiHp 
 was the youngest. His widow, whom he married August 4th, 1806, was Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Nathan Starr, of Danbury, and grand-daughter of Captain Josiah Starr, 
 whose paternal grandfather, Josiah Starr, together with seven other families, began the 
 settlement of the town of Danbury, in 1693. Josiah Starr, Sr., was one of the 
 seven patentees named in the grant made in 1702, that gave town privileges to 
 Danbury. He was one the leading citizens, a large landholder, and the incumbent 
 of many offices of honor and distinction. His father. Dr. Thomas Starr, was appoint- 
 ed "chirurgeon" to the forces sent against the Pequots, on the 17th of May, 1637. 
 The common ancestor of this branch of the Starr familv was Dr. Comfort Starr, 
 of Ashford, Kent, England, who emigrated to this country in March, 1634, accom- 
 panied by three children and three servants. 
 
 The descendant of long lines of honorable and upright ancestors, David PhiHp 
 Nichols was born in the mansion that stands on the site of Major Daniel Starr's 
 house, in which General Washington was once entertained, and which was the first 
 one burned by the British on their raid into Danbury. His mother was an excel- 
 lent member of the Baptist Church, lived in widowhood no less than sixty years, 
 and died at Danbury, in 1873, at the age of 86. His scholastic education was 
 of academic character, and fitted him for the business of a general merchant, upon 
 which he entered at his native town in 1838, and in which he continued for the 
 lengthy period of thirty-three years. 
 
 In public life Mr. Nichols has borne an unostentatious, but none the less 
 efficient, part. In i860, 1865, and 1880, he represented his native town in the 
 Legislature of the State, having been elected thereto by the Republican party, with 
 which he has always been identified. In the former of these years he rendered 
 admirable service as chairman of the Committee on Railroads. In 1865 he offici- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 269 
 
 ated as member of the Committee on New Towns and Probate Districts ; and 
 was chairman of the special commission on the removal of the court-house from 
 New London to Norwich. A bitter contest arose over the projected removal, and 
 ended in the retention of the half-shire privilege by New London. He has also 
 served, in his legislative experience, as chairman of the Committee on Finance, and 
 of the Committee on Contingent Expenses. Offices of honor and trust have been 
 confided to his keeping, at different times, by his fellow citizens in Danbury. 
 
 In the religious, financial, and economic affairs of the town he has been, and 
 is, an influential factor. Connected with the First Congregational Church, he has 
 advanced its interests in various capacities. Of the old Danbury Bank he was one 
 of the directors, and is now a director of the Danbury National Bank. He was 
 also one of the incorporators of the Savings Bank of the same town. In railroad 
 enterprises he has been active, and was director of the Danbury & Norwalk Rail- 
 road for many years. The Danbury Gas Company has profited by his services as 
 director since its organization. With the Norwalk Fire Insurance Company he is 
 also associated in directorial relations. From 1856 to 18 71 his activities took wider 
 range as trustee of the State Reform School, of whose board of management 
 he was for some years the chairman. In 1869, 1871, and 1872 Mr. Nichols 
 filled the responsible post of State Treasurer, to which he was elected by the Repub- 
 lican party, and for which his fitness had been demonstrated by previous service as 
 chairman of the Board of Bank Commissioners, appointed by the State. In 1877, 
 together with Judge O. S. Seymour and Henry M. Cleveland, he acted as special 
 Insurance Commissioner, and investigated the methods and condition of all the life 
 insurance companies doing business in Connecticut. In all these multifarious rela- 
 tions and employments his endowments as a ready, versatile, and forcible speaker have 
 been brought into beneficent play. 
 
 Mr. Nichols has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was united 
 November 30th, 1831, was Marietta, daughter of John Williams, of Bethel. She died 
 in January, 1845. His second wife, whom he espoused on the 9th of June, 1846, 
 was Matilda, daughter of Nathaniel P. Averill, of Salisbury. Five children— three 
 boys and two girls— were the issue of the first union. One of the sons is the Rev. 
 Starr Nichols, a Protestant Episcopal clergyman in Philadelphia. One daughter, now 
 married and settled in the West, is the fruit of the second marriage. 
 
270 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 USSELL, GURDON WADSWORTH, A.M., M.D., of Hartford. Born in 
 ^ Hartford, April loth, 1815. His father, John Russell, born in Litchfield, was 
 a printer and publisher in Hartford, Conn. His Mother, nee Martha Wads- 
 •'^ worth, was a resident of Hartford. 
 
 After the usual preparatory course, young Russell entered Trinity College, Hart- 
 ford, and graduated therefrom in 1834. Selecting the medical profession for his future 
 activities, he began to prepare for its exercise in the year of his graduation from 
 college, in the office of Dr. A. Brigham, at Hartford — the gentleman who subse- 
 quently took charge of the Hartford Retreat, and after that became identified with 
 the management of the Insane Asylum at Utica, N. Y. Mr. Russell next matric- 
 ulated at the medical department of Yale College in 1835, pursued a thorough course 
 of study, and received the diploma of M.D. from that institution in 1837. 
 
 Dr. Russell entered upon medical practice first at Wethersfield, Conn., prosecuted 
 it successfully in that locality for one year, and then removed to Hartford, of which 
 city he has since been a constant resident. Recognized by fellow-practitioners 
 as one of the leaders of his profession for many years. Dr. Russell has, for rea- 
 sons satisfactory to himself, withdrawn from its exclusive pursuit, and bestowed his 
 time and energies on several cognate philanthropic enterprises. Blessed with ample 
 pecuniary resources, he has wisely and unostentatiously contributed to many worthy 
 beneficenses, connected and unconnected with the medical profession. Of the Retreat 
 for the Insane at Hartford, he has served as one of the directors. Philanthropically 
 and scientifically interested in its progress and welfare, he erected and completely 
 furnished a handsome chapel in 1875, and presented it to the corporation for the 
 benefit of the patients under its care. There are not wanting many observant and 
 judicious physicians who have studied how to " minister medicine to minds diseased," 
 who regard this act of munificence as one of the wisest and most scientific of the 
 many with which Dr. Russell must be credited. It may be, and probably is, true 
 that hereditary tendency to insanity is sometimes developed by wild religious excite- 
 ment, that different forms of mental aberration are induced by brooding on religious 
 subjects — and especially when aided by other causes ; but it is none the less true 
 that the calm, kind, thoughtful inculcation of Christian truth, and the benign influence 
 of genuine Christian worship have prevented multitudes of bruised, blinded, bitter 
 souls, from becoming hopelessly insane. Science observes the whole field of human 
 experiences, and adapts its measures — as Dr. Russell has done — in the most judicious 
 style to human healing and happiness. 
 
 Dr. Russell has been Vice-President of the American Medical Association, President 
 of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and member of other medical associations. 
 
 He was married, in 1838, to Elizabeth S. Tuttle, of Hartford, who departed this 
 life in 1S71. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^ D I A . 271 
 
 NIGHT, HENRY MARTER, M.D., of Salisbury. Born in Stafford, 
 
 L Tolland County, Conn., August nth, 1827. His father, the Rev. Joseph 
 Knight, was a Congregational clergyman at Munson, Mass. His mother, 
 G^ nie Ruby Hyde, was a native of the same place. 
 
 Dr. Knight was educated in the Academy at Munson, and also at the Williston 
 Seminary. Much valuable instruction, and particularly in the classics, was further 
 imparted to him by his excellent father. Selecting the profession of medicine, he 
 began the study of its theory and practice in 1846, in Worcester County, Mass., 
 under the direction of Professor Julien F. Minor, now an eminent practitioner in 
 Buffalo, N. Y., and also connected with the faculty of the Buffalo Medical College. 
 His preparatory studies were continued and completed at Munson under the tuition 
 of Dr. Alvan Smith. Subsequently, he matriculated at the Berkshire Medical Col- 
 lege^ attended a course of lectures there, thence repaired to New York and spent a 
 year in hospital practice, and finally received his diploma of M.D. from the Berkshire 
 Medical College in 1849. 
 
 Adequately prepared for professional duties, Dr. Knight then settled in his native 
 town — Stafford Springs — and practised there until the autumn of 185 1, when he 
 removed to Salisbury, and occupied himself with general medical duties until the 
 year 1858. Three years prior to the latter date, his attention had been forcibly 
 drawn to a special department of medical science and skill, while a member of the 
 lower house of the State Legislature. In 1855 he had been elected to membership 
 in that body, and was deeply impressed by the Governor's address on the condition 
 of the feeble-minded in Connecticut. That official also suggested the appointment of 
 a committee to investigate their needs, and to report the results of its investigations. 
 Dr. Knight was assigned to duty on that committee, and in unison with the other 
 members reported a bill to the House. The measures proposed failed of acceptance 
 by the Senate, and the matter was temporarily dropped. But Dr. Knight was not 
 so easily foiled. By 1858 he had carefully and thoroughly investigated the whole 
 subject, and without waiting for legislative assistance founded a private institution in 
 Salisbury for the treatment of the imbecile and idiotic. 
 
 Dr. Knight was a rarely noble man, a product of the times, and one eminently 
 adapted to meet the needs of the times. The objects of his special sympathy had 
 suffered for centuries as if they had committed the greatest crimes. "In 1826 a 
 young clergyman, . rendered insane by over-work, was found in the Bridewell Prison 
 of New York, herded with ruffians and murderers. At that time there were in the 
 prisons of Massachusetts thirty lunatics." First Century of the Republic, p. 468. In 
 New Hampshire, in 1834, out of 189 lunatics in the State, 76 were kept in prison 
 and 34 in alms-houses. In 1833 it was estimated that there were 2400 lunatics 
 
272 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 confined in jails and prisons of the United States. Tiie treatment received in these 
 establishments usually extinguished all hope of improvement. The keepers— often 
 hard and cruel — neither understood the needs of their unfortunate wards, nor attempt- 
 ed to regulate their often disgusting habits, nor kept their bodies clean, nor furnished 
 the simple comforts which mitigate the power of disease, nor ministered in any 
 way to the diseased or defective mind. The horrors of county poor-houses and 
 penitentiaries were unreportable. In some sections of the United States they 
 are still unfit for publication, and brand our boasted civilization with infamy and 
 shame. The first condition of reform and humane treatment in regard to " defectives," 
 Dr. Knight clearly perceived to be classification; that they ought to be segregated 
 from other classes of individuals dependent upon the public treasury, placed in insti- 
 tutions by themselves, and subjected to the influences of education, industry, and 
 religion. His daring and courageous experiment more than fulfilled the expectations 
 of himself and friends. A considerable number of his patients were fitted for society, 
 and a much larger number advanced in self-control, and the use of their faculties. 
 Through his labors, the sense of human rights and of the brotherhood of humanity 
 has more profoundly penetrated the people of the State, while they have been 
 taught the best known methods of preventing the social evils with which Christian 
 and heathen civilization alike seem hitherto to have been unable to cope. 
 
 The institution founded by Dr. Knight, at Salisbury, remained under his indi- 
 vidual control for several years, and then passed under the auspices of a corporation, 
 of which he was the practical head, and which has since received a certain degree 
 of patronage and sustentation from the State. The scientific Christian treatment of 
 the feeble-minded was the work to which his life was particularly devoted. To it 
 he gave the best of his thought, and the ripest and strongest years of his life. 
 He was master of all the science and literature appertaining to his specialty, rose 
 to the eminence of an acknowledged leading authority in that department, and 
 retained his reputation, with constant increase, to the day of his death. 
 
 Dr. Knight departed this life on the 22d of January, 1880; worn out by cease- 
 less thought and incessant endeavor to improve the condition of the sorrowful and 
 suffering class to whose needs he immediately and skilfully administered. His 
 contributions to the issues of the medical press were mainly on abnormal psychology, 
 and are highly valued by the members of the profession at large, and more particu- 
 larly by that patient and heroic branch of it that is interested in the same class 
 of studies and procedures with himself. A true Christian, a genuine philanthropist, 
 a distinguisl^ed man of science, a patriotic citizen, and a friend that was " true as 
 steel," his memory will be fragrant in his native State when the excellent establish- 
 ment he founded has crumbled into dust. He was a member of the various Medical 
 
/^/ ^ ^^ ^ 
 
 , ."'liljlv-lliTi^^ ij. Ell^lij>TjjL L.O irc\;,'Toyli 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P.'ED I A . 273 
 
 Societies of Connecticut, and had received sundry honorary degrees from the State 
 Medical Societies of New York and California. He was also a permanent member 
 of the American Medical Association, and an associate member of the New England 
 Psychological Society. 
 
 Dr. Knight was married in 1850, to Mary Fitch Phelps, of Norfolk, Conn. 
 Two sons were the issue of their union. Both are medical men, and both are 
 engaged in the same specific professional pursuits as their honored father. Dr. George 
 H. Knight is now in charge of an institution for the feeble-minded in Minnesota; 
 and Dr. Robert P. Knight has succeeded to his father's honors, responsibilities, and 
 duties at the institution in Salisbury. 
 
 fALCOTT, CHARLES D, of Talcottville, which is located upon the line of the 
 New York and New England Railroad, in Tolland County, Conn., ten miles 
 east from Stamford. Born September loth, 1823, at Manchester, Hartford 
 V County, Conn. His father, Elijah Talcott, was a farmer, and had done good 
 
 service as a schoolmaster. His mother, nee Florilla Hubbard, of Bolton, Conn., is 
 still living, and at the age of eighty-two is a regular attendant on the ordained 
 means of grace. 
 
 Youne Talcott received his scholastic education in his native town, and after 
 its completion was associated with his father in agricultural pursuits until he had 
 attained his twenty-seventh year. During several winter terms he was also the 
 teacher of the district school. In 1850 he determined to change the channel of 
 business energy, and accepted employment in the establishment of N. O. Kellogg, 
 of Kelloggville, a manufacturer of satinets and flannels, and continued in connection 
 with that gentleman until his decease in May, 1854. After that event Mr. Talcott, 
 and his brother, the late Deacon H. W. Talcott, as agents, conducted the business 
 in the interest of the Kellogg executors until January, 1856, when they purchased the 
 entire property, and organized the firm of the Talcott Brothers. 
 
 When the new firm commenced operations, the works consisted of two small 
 
 mills, containing four sets of machinery. Simultaneously with the transfer of the 
 
 estate, the name of the village was changed to Tallcottville, by which title it is 
 
 now designated. From 1856 to 1875 the Talcott Brothers confined their labors 
 
 iS 
 
274 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 exclusively to the fabrication of satinets; and, in the latter year, added the manufac- 
 ture of union cassimeres. In October, 1869, they sutfered the loss of one of their 
 mills by fire, and also sustained serious damage from a flood. Characteristic vigor 
 and judicious enterprise immediately constructed fresh buildings on a larger scale, 
 and with augmented capabilities of production. Five full sets of machinery were 
 established— employing about seventy-five hands. The increase in number of opera- 
 tives from thirty in 1856 to about seventy-five in 1870 indicates the expansion of 
 the manufacture under the force and skill of the proprietors. Their present annual 
 production is nearly 500,000 yards. 
 
 Close attention to the pressing demands of business did not exclude, but rather 
 included, unintermitted care for the secular and spiritual welfare of their operatives, 
 of whom the inhabitants of the village are composed. The residences of thirty-six 
 families employed in the mills, and almost all the other dwellings therein, were 
 erected by them. 
 
 Intoxicating liquors are not sold in the village, neither is any one addicted to 
 the use of them in the service of the firm. The result is that the place is wholly 
 free from the low resorts which work such baleful mischief in other communities. 
 With keen, instructed insight, the Talcott Brothers perceived that personal and social 
 morality are dependent upon normal religious relations with the Almighty Artificer of 
 heaven and earth, and therefore in 1865-6 erected a beautiful church structure, at a 
 cost of $33,000, for the benefit of themselves and workmen. It contains a valuable 
 organ, commodious lecture-room, and all other material requisites for the development 
 of pure and beneficent social life. Cultured ministerial talent has been brought into 
 exercise, and, aided by these accessories, has done much to raise Talcottville to the 
 dignity of an ideal village. The expenses of the church — which is of the Congrega- 
 tionalist order — have been and still are largely borne by the company. In t86o they 
 built a grist and saw mill, which they continue to operate. Connected with the other 
 properties is a general store, and also a farm of two hundred acres, in an admirable 
 state of cultivation. 
 
 In 1 87 1 the firm of Talcott Brothers, as it had existed for the previous fifteen 
 years, was broken up by the hand of death. In June of that year Horace W. 
 Talcott was called away. His loss was severely felt. In the business he had taken 
 charge of the manufacturing department, while his brother, Charles D. Talcott, had 
 managed financial affairs. Horace W. Talcott was a native of Manchester, Conn., and 
 at the age of seventeen entered into the service of the Hon. N. O. Kellogg, with 
 whom he formed an enduring friendship, and whose influence upon him was of the 
 most salutary and Christian description. What modern Theism terms " the ascent of 
 life," and what ordinary Christianity speaks of as conversion, was experienced by him- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 275 
 
 self and his eldest brother Hart about the same time. Horace was then nineteen, 
 and, in the thirty-one years of subsequent life, the moral change he then underwent 
 became markedly apparent. His fine nature developed into noble Christian manhood, 
 and endeared him to all his acquaintances. On the 31st of October, 1848, he was 
 chosen to the diaconate. " His consistent Christian life, his deep Christian sympathy, 
 his large liberality, ... his singular prudence and gentleness," and his manifest 
 abilities, eminently fitted him for the discharge of his influential and responsible 
 duties. He understood and prized the Sunday-school, and as a " superintendent he 
 had few equals and still fewer superiors." Childhood and youth alike confessed his 
 beneficent power ; and in their maturer lives his own has been essentially and fre- 
 quently reproduced. He was an effective speaker, delighted in the true observance 
 of the Lord's Day, clung to biblical doctrines with unconquerable tenacity, and was, 
 withal, an unassuming, humble Christian. Wise, useful, evangelical, and beloved — 
 considerate of others' feelings and interests — a warm friend and a true " yokefellow," 
 his end was in harmony with his life. It was peaceful, confident, and blessed. While 
 yet in the zenith, the sun of life suddenly set in unclouded splendors. " Severe over- 
 exertion of body and mind in his business was, unquestionably, the cause of his 
 decease. He never knew how to shirk either physical or mental labor ; and so, thus 
 early, the springs of life in him failed" — a failure beyond all medical relief. His 
 remains were committed to the earth, in presence of a large and mourning concourse, 
 in the beautiful Mount Hope Cemetery, which the Talcott Brothers had set aside 
 as " God's Acre" in 1 868 ; and in which, during the ensuing year, they raised at a 
 cost of $1500, and then publicly dedicated the first soldiers' monument in the State. 
 True Christianity and genuine patriotism are ever inseparably associated as the fruitful 
 branch with the living vine. 
 
 Since the death of Deacon Horace W. Talcott, the entire supervision of the 
 large concerns of the firm has been assumed by Charles D. Talcott. " God buries 
 His workmen, but carries on His work." A published in memoriam address, deliv- 
 ered September 29th, 1874, at the funeral of Harriet M., wife of Deacon C. D. 
 Talcott, by the pastor. Rev. G. A. Oviatt, reveals the fact that Mr. Talcott has 
 taken his brother's place in the diaconate of the church. He has also succeeded. 
 him in the superintendency of the Sunday-school, and is " in labors more abundant." 
 
 The logical deduction from Herbert Spencer's philosophical statements is that 
 nothing so harmonizes man with his environments as living Christianity. Looking 
 always to things eternal, he is best adapted to handle things temporal. It is in 
 the fitness of things that the Talcott Brothers should have been indentified with 
 the First National Bank of Rockville since its organization, and that Charles D. 
 Talcott should have been the vice-president of that institution for the past five years. 
 
276 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 He was also for many years a director in the First National Bank of Hartford, in 
 which the company had a large interest, which subsequently was transferred to the 
 Putnam Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford; and in this company Mr. Talcott 
 became a director, and held this position until the company, with others, was swept 
 from existence through the large fires in Chicago and Portland. 
 
 In politics Mr. Talcott is an ardent supporter of the Republican party ; and 
 although not desirous of public life, his name was favorably mentioned for the 
 Congressional nomination of his district in 1878. 
 
 Several nephews are at present associated with Mr. Talcott in the management 
 of the several departments of his undertakings. H. Gardner Talcott, son of Deacon 
 H. W. Talcott, is superintendent of the works; Morris H. Talcott is secretary and 
 treasurer ; Samuel Talcott is manager of the store ; and the farm is in charge of 
 Lyman P., a brother of Charles D. Talcott. 
 
 Keenly alive to the advantage and necessity of educating the children of their 
 employes, they have just completed, for school purposes, a handsome brick edifice, 
 which for general convenience and architectural beauty is unsurpassed by any similar 
 building in the State. They have also in contemplation the enlargement of their 
 mills, which when completed will add materially to the wealth and importance of 
 the place. Mr. Talcott has been married twice. Each of his wives was a graduate 
 of Mount Holyoke Seminary, Mass. His first wife, whom he espoused in 185 1, 
 was Harriet, daughter of Col. Francis McLean, of Vernon, Tolland County. She died 
 in September, 1874, with that highest of all encomiums on the hps of discreet and 
 discerning friends — " She hath done what she could." Her life was one of cease- 
 less aspiration and close approximation to the ideal of a good wife as sketched by 
 the pen of inspiration. Mr. Talcott's second marriage was in 1876, to H. Maria 
 Freeman, of Mansfield, Conn., a lady of fine accomplishments, and fully worthy the 
 encomiums as passed upon her predecessor. 
 
 The work of Mr. Talcott and his associates has demonstrated the fact that the 
 interests of capital and labor are indentical ; and that in our country, where edu- 
 cation is placed within the reach of all, labor and social dignity 0-0 hand in hand. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 277 
 
 p^JERRY, ORRIS SANFORD, of Norwalk, United States Senator from Con- 
 A-" necticut. Born in Bethel, Conn., August 15th, 1823. His father, Starr Ferry, 
 was a prominent hat manufacturer in his native town. His mother's maiden 
 name was Esther Blackman. His superior mental endowments became 
 apparent in early youth. He was apprenticed to his father's trade, and subsequently 
 cherished just pride in the proficiency he had attained in that calling. As chairman 
 of the Senate Committee on Patents, in the last session of Congress he attended, he 
 proved himself to be in advance of advocates and experts in thorough knowledge 
 of that branch of manufacture. Love of books and passion for study took possession 
 of him in early life, and he left his trade to enter upon a course of preparation for 
 college. At the age of fourteen he was sent by his father to a preparatory school 
 at Wilton, Conn., in 1837, and completed his preliminary studies at New Haven in 
 1840, under the instructions of Mr. Harvey Olmstead. Judges of character saw in 
 him a youth of rare talents and promise. While others acquired knowledge labori- 
 ously, to him it was merely pastime. In 1840, at the age of seventeen, he entered 
 Yale College, and while there '' his fine powers of mind soon found appreciative 
 recognition, particularly in the department of literature and debate. He early became 
 one of the editors of the Yale Literary Magazine ; was also a successful competitor 
 for the Townsend literary prize ; and uniformly stood among the very highest in 
 anything that required elaborate or extemporaneous address. His prestige thus gained 
 in letters, together with his hearty social qualities and his fine personal appearance, 
 secured for him a marked popularity, as well in circles without as within the college." 
 He graduated in 1844, at the age of twenty-one, and at once commenced the 
 study of law with Thomas B. Osborne, of Fairfield. One year later he entered the 
 office of the late Chief Justice Thomas B. Butler, in Norwalk. In two years from 
 that time he was admitted to the bar, and became the partner of his former preceptor, 
 His professional associations were most fortunate. Judge Butler was remarkable for 
 his legal learning, varied acquirements, love of justice, and generous social qualities. 
 The bar of Fairfield and the adjoining counties had many eminent lawyers. "There 
 were the venerable Charles Hawley, Roger Sherman Baldwin, the Ingersolls, Judges 
 Butler, Seymour, Button — all learned in the mysteries of jurisprudence, the first two 
 becoming Chief Justices of our high court. Besides these there were a score 5f 
 younger men — Minor, Beardsley, Loomis, White, Carter, Beach, Harrison, and others, 
 near his own age, of rare ability." Address of H. H. Starkweather on the Life and 
 Character of O. S. Ferry : Corrected and Read by James A. Garfield, p. 62. Sur- 
 rounded by this array of cultured and disciplined talent, it speaks volumes in favor 
 of the young practitioner's industry and talent, to state that within a few years from 
 his admission to the bar he had placed himself at the head of his profession. 
 
278 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^ D I A . 
 
 In 1847 he received the commission of lieutenant-colonel of the Twelfth 
 Division of Connecticut militia; in 1849 he was appointed Judge of Probate for 
 the District of Norwalk ; in April, 1855, and again in 1856, he was elected to the 
 State Senate ; in the same year he was appointed State Attorney for Fairfield 
 County, and held that position until 1859, when he was elected Representative to 
 Congress from the Fourth District of Connecticut. In Congress he served on the 
 Committee on Revolutionary Claims, and on the Committee of Thirty-three on 
 the Rebellious States. The House then embraced many men of marked character 
 and ability. The great leaders of the South, schooled in politics and accustomed 
 to rule, were there. The North also was represented by many men of great ability, 
 but mostly new to the public service. Mr. Ferry took a conspicuous part in the 
 discussions of the body from the very outset. His opinions and positions were 
 identical with those of our most thoughtful and practised statesmen. His analyses 
 of the state of the country were skilful and just ; and his views of the duty of the 
 National Government such as were amply justified by the following march of events. 
 
 How much of the marvellous eflFectiveness then and afterward revealed in the 
 service of his country had its origin in personal consecration to the highest duties 
 and noblest ends need not be here discussed. In the autumn of 1859 he made a 
 public profession of religion, and united with the First Congregational Church of 
 Norwalk. That he had not done so before was not owing to real indifference or 
 prejudice, but to the strength of his propensities to sense and sin. The power of 
 these was broken by Divine grace, and he entered into the liberty wherewith Christ 
 makes His people free. Thenceforward, as he once remarked to Senator Wadleigh, 
 " he tried to live as though the next moment would usher him to the bar of the 
 Eternal Judge." In this frame of mind he found nothing inconsistent, but everything 
 that was congruous, with the service of his troubled and imperilled country. He 
 was an eminently sincere man— sincere in his professions, and sincere in all his 
 actions. This sincerity was manifest in his worship in the sanctuary; in the Sunday- 
 school, where he was a faithful and edifying instructor; in the place of social prayer, 
 where his voice was often heard in remarks and fervent petition ; in occasional 
 religious lectures, wherein he used all his wealth of scriptural learning, of general and 
 critical knowledge, to unfold and enforce the truths of Christ and of His revealed religion. 
 Humility was as obvious as sincerity. Mind and heart and life were wholly given 
 to Christ. The Rev. Dr. Childs, a former pastor of Senator Ferry, wrote of him 
 in the Congregationalist, Dec. 9th, 1875: "It is true that in early life he was scep- 
 tical; but the transition from scepticism to faith was real and thorough. His 
 conversion was as clear as that of Paul. In the latter part of the year 1865 he 
 delivered a course of lectures, rapidly prepared, on the evidences of Christianity. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 279 
 
 These, I think, indicated the working of his own mind in passing from the darkness 
 of unbelief to the Christian faith. The great fact on which he rested was the res- 
 urrection of Christ. He had satisfied himself, as a lawyer, as an investigator of 
 evidence, that, as a historic fact, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. That settled 
 everything. The Bible was inspired because it had upon it the seal of the risen 
 Christ. Christianity, with all its facts and doctrines, was true, because it was grounded 
 in Him who was dead and is alive again. This was to him a real and living faith. 
 He grew in it and by it." 
 
 The state of the nation at the epoch of his entrance upon Congressional duties 
 was such as to call forth all the powers of his richly and rarely endowed nature. 
 A sagacious counseller and a wise statesman, he was also an eloquent advocate and 
 orator. The magnetic and convincing power with which he spoke placed him 
 amongst the masters of forensic and popular address. He was uniformly equal to 
 the emergency. No voice was more potent in rallying the masses than his. No 
 counter force was more feared by political opponents than that which he brought 
 to bear. Nowhere did he speak '' with the counsel of the statesman and the 
 authority of the general in war" to greater effect than in the Senate of the United 
 States ; and nowhere was appreciation of his colossal merit more genuine and 
 emphatic. " During the Congressional session of 1875, at the end of a fifteen min- 
 utes' speech on the Louisiana question. Senator Schurz remarked to a mutual 
 friend, " Poor Ferry ! Ill and weak as he is, he is head and shoulders above any 
 other man in the Senate in point of intellectual force." 
 
 Mr. Feri)' N2& pre-eminently a man of convictions. " He decided and acted 
 according to his conception of what was clearly and broadly right. Questionable 
 causes, as a lawyer, he positively refused to espouse. More than once he said to 
 those, who with much entreaty and gold, sought to enlist his services : " No, gen- 
 tlemen, I think you are not in the right, and I will have nothing to do with 
 your case." Such a man could not possibly be in any other than a resolutely hos- 
 tile attitude to slavery and secession. On the 24th of February, 1861, he made an 
 earnest speech in Congress, in which he affirmed that the Southern leaders demanded 
 that the Constitution be so amended as to give protection to slave property every- 
 where in the United States, while they refuse to pledge that even such an amend- 
 ment, with the repeal of the Personal Liberty Bills, should constitute a final and 
 satisfactory adjustment. " To buy transient peace, even if possible, at the price of 
 this amendment, is to enact a dangerous precedent. Any new demand will be enforced 
 by repeated secession. .... A compromise now is but the establishment of 
 
 sedition as an elementary principle in our system There is no course left 
 
 but for the Government to vindicate its dignity by an exhibition of its strength." 
 
28o BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 The old Puritan spirit rose in him with lion-like majesty and force, and calmly 
 resolved on vigorous and prompt action. He served in the Cassius M. Clay Guard, 
 which patrolled Washington day and night, in the season of alarm and peril, before 
 the arrival of troops. In June he was commissioned as Colonel of the Fifth Con- 
 necticut Volunteers. In March, 1862, he crossed the Potomac, at Williamsburgh, 
 with his regiment, advanced into Virginia, drove the enemy from Winchester, and 
 occupied the place. Soon after that he was appointed brigadier-general, and took 
 command of the brigade under General Shields, whose division was ordered to join 
 McDowell. In the severe and sanguinary frays that followed. General Ferry bore 
 himself with distinguished gallantry, earned brilliant reputation by services during the 
 war, and at its close devoted his best energies to the political and social welfare 
 of the country he would have died to save. 
 
 When the war for the preservation of the Union ended, he resumed the practice 
 of his profession; but in the next year, 1866, was elected to the Senate of the 
 United States, in which he served one full term, and to which he was re-elected 
 in 1872. He entered the Senate at the beginning of the Fortieth Congress. The 
 problem of reconstruction was to be solved. By many he was held to be unduly 
 conservative in his tendencies. It is true that he eaily favored large amnesty to 
 those who had been in rebellion against the Government ; but it is also true that 
 he always maintained with masterly ability not only the right of the nation, but its 
 duty to secure hberty, enfranchisement, and civil rights to those who had been 
 slaves. He wrote considerably for the press. Many of his speeches were printed 
 in the Congressional Globe., but otherwise he left no publications. Bribery and 
 corruption never attempted to approach him, for sterling integrity elevated him 
 beyond the reach of temptation. " As a Senator," said Mr. English of Connecticut, 
 " he had a clear conception not only of the duties but the responsibilities of the 
 position, and was fearless in the discharge of those duties." Senator Bayard, of Dela- 
 ware, affirmed that '' his censure of what he deemed corrupt, dishonest, and unworthy, 
 was unhesitating and unsparing. And he never permitted the garb of party to 
 shelter a guilty man from his just denunciation. For six years we served together 
 upon the Committee on Private Land Claims, where cases involving the title or 
 possession of extensive and valuable bodies of land came frequently before us. His 
 intelligence, acumen, and fine legal and judicial abilities were in this way made 
 known to me ; and reports of important cases, comprehending questions of law and 
 fact of a complicated nature, where lapse of time and fraud had combined to obscure 
 truth and justice, were made by him, and are on the files of the Senate, in which 
 his vigorous and instinctively honest mind dissolved all doubts, and arrayed the 
 merits of the case in clear and orderly precision." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 2S1 
 
 Honest unswerving sense of right was his grand characteristic. It led him into 
 courses of action opposed to popular convictions, and provoked warm indignation 
 in his constituents at times. But indignation gave place to admiration when they 
 saw that he wanted and intended to be and to do right under all circumstances. 
 Considerations of personal friendship had no weight with him when opposed to 
 ascertained duty. There was no member of the National Senate for whom he had 
 more profound regard than for Charles Sumner. But he did not hesitate to oppose 
 that great and cherished friend when personal conviction of right and duty impelled 
 him so to do. On the 27th of January, 1874, he spoke in fearless and uncom- 
 promising language in opposition to the Civil Rights Bill, and drew from Mr. Sumner 
 the pathetic and deploring remark : — " Mr. Ferry, your speech is far the most 
 damaging blow my measure has yet received." Genuine moral courage was required 
 to strike that blow, and that moral courage was one of the crowning excellences 
 of his character. 
 
 Flis last speech in the United State Senate was his uncommonly eloquent and 
 brilliant address in memory of his old colleague — William A. Buckingham. His 
 own end was drawing near. Leaving Washington, shortly before the close of the 
 Forty-third Congress, he reached Norwalk in a state of extreme exhaustion. A new 
 method of medical treatment in Brooklyn, N. Y., was tried, but failed to give 
 needed relief His disease was softening or decay of the spinal marrow. Pain was 
 excruciating, agony uncontrollable. Even then a few of Christ's tender words from 
 the Gospel of St. John would quiet him. On the 20th of November, 1875, his 
 friends and physicians bore him tenderly back to Connecticut that he might die 
 in his own home. The following day was one of November gloom that passed away 
 as the evening drew nigh, and the day closed in all the glory of a gorgeous sun- 
 set. That unearthly glory was symbolic of the splendors that enwrapt the soul of 
 Orris S. Ferry, in his departure to the Paradise of God. He died on the Lord's 
 Day, November 21, 1875, at 2.15 p.m., aged 52 years, 3 months, and 17 days, 
 
 " In his death the country . . . lost one of its purest and ablest statesmen ; the 
 Commonwealth of Connecticut, which proudly reckons many distinguished sons 
 among her jewels, the peer of the most gifted of them; the legal profession, one 
 of its soundest counsellors and most eloquent advocates ; the community in which 
 he lived, an accomplished Christian gentlemen ; and his family such a husband and 
 father as only such a husband could be to a loved and loving wife, and such a 
 father to an affectionate and devoted daughter." 
 
 Senator Ferry was married on the 17th of May, 1847, to Charlotte C, daughter 
 of Governor Clark Bissell. One daughter was the fruit of their happy and auspi- 
 cious union. 
 
2S2 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 l^l^l/ "ELLES, GIDEON, was born in Glastonbury, July ist, 1802, of the prim- 
 itive Puritan stock. Thomas Welles, the original settler, was in Hartford 
 as early as 1636, was the first Treasurer of the colony, and subsequently 
 
 3^ its Governor. The estate in Glastonbury, upon which Mr. Welles was 
 
 born was purchased of the Indians by Governor Welles in 1640, and has never 
 passed from the hands of his descendants. 
 
 Mr. Welles was several years at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, and subse- 
 quently was with Captain Partridge at the Norwich University, and at a later period 
 read law in the offices of the late Chief-Justice Williams, and the Hon. William W. 
 Ellsworth, but he did not enter upon general practice, circumstances inclining him 
 rather to political life. 
 
 In January 1826, he became editor and one of the proprietors of the Hartford 
 Times, and upon the disorganization of the old Republican and Federal parties he 
 was active in organizing the Democratic party in this State, his position and ability 
 making him one of its recognized leaders, and one whose influence was always 
 paramount in the councils of the party. The Times, under the auspices of Mr. 
 Welles, was the first paper in New England to sustain General Jackson for the 
 Presidency, and after his election, as Connecticut was represented in Congress by his 
 opponents, Mr. Welles more than any man in the State was President Jackson's 
 confidential friend and adviser in the local affairs of the State. He continued to 
 edit the Times until the close of Jackson's administration, and was a large con- 
 tributor to its editorial columns until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
 
 In 1827 Mr. Welles was elected to the Legislature from Glastonbury, and was 
 the youngest member of that body. He was repeatedly re-elected until 1835, when 
 he was appointed • by the Legislature Comptroller of Public Accounts. In the 
 politics, legislative action, and important measures of the State, for more than forty 
 years Mr. Welles bore a distinguished part, and the different measures and policy 
 advocated by him ultimately became successful. As a counsellor and adviser his 
 party friends gave him their entire confidence, and the results of his suggestions 
 justified their selection. 
 
 Among the measures originating with him, and which are incorporated into the 
 policy of the State, two or three may be mentioned. In the summer of 1828, the 
 Supreme Court, sitting at Litchfield, decided that a witness who did not believe 
 in a future state of rewards and punishments was disqualified and could not testify 
 in a court of justice. This decision was promptly met and discussed by Mr. Welles 
 in the Times, and led to an animated and somewhat embittered controversy. Beino- 
 a member of the Legislature, he introduced an act for religious freedom, which after 
 a severe struggle eventuated in a compromise by which no persons who believed 
 
lii>;ij.-oyji.'LLl:jiiI'unliP'l:iA^""ig '' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 283 
 
 m a God should be excluded from testifying in a court of justice. Mr. Welles 
 denied the inquisitorial power of the courts, or the right of excluding witnesses on 
 account of their religious opinions. 
 
 Mr. Welles took ground against the whole system of special legislation as radi- 
 cally wrong, and claimed that there should be general laws under which individuals 
 might associate for business purposes. The views and policy thus advocated were 
 amply discussed, become matters of party contest, and in 1835, entering into the 
 election revolutionized the State ; a majority of the members of the Legislature favor- 
 ing the policy of general laws and opposing special legislation. Being a member 
 of the House of Representatives, Mr. Welles was made Chairman of the Committee 
 on Corporations, and introduced a general law, preceded by a report commended as 
 of marked ability by the reformers of that day. The law passed the popular branch 
 but was defeated in the Senate. The following year its passage was secured, making 
 a great revolution in the local legislation of the State, and in fact of many others, 
 as the principle has since been largely recognized and adapted. 
 
 The subject of imprisonment for debt was agitated for many years, Mr. Welles 
 taking a prominent part in advocating its abolition. 
 
 He was also one of the advocates of low and uniform rates of postage, and 
 many other reforms now universally conceded wise. The position occupied by Mr. 
 Welles as a prominent newspaper writer for more than thirty years, naturally called 
 upon him to advocate or condemn many other of the proposed changes in State as 
 well as national policy. His discussion of these matters was clear and thorough, 
 and aided largely in their adjustment. As an editor he was a strenuous advocate of 
 State rights, and of strict construction of the Federal Constitution — principles by 
 which to the last he tested public measures. 
 
 Upon the election of Judge Niles (then Postmaster of Hartford) to the Senate, 
 in 1836, Mr. Welles was appointed to succeed him, the Hartford post-office being 
 then one of the largest and most important distributing offices in the country — 
 making the distribution of mails for all New England. He remained in this posi- 
 tion until the accession of President Harrison, in 1841, when he was removed. In 
 1842 he was elected Comptroller by the people, the Constitution having been 
 changed, making the office elective, and in 1843 he was re-elected. 
 
 In 1846 Mr. Polk, unsolicited and very unexpectedly, appointed Mr. Welles 
 chief of the bureau of provisions and clothing of the Navy department — a position 
 which he retained until the summer of 1849. 
 
 On the adjustment of the financial question during the administration of Mr. 
 Polk, Mr. Welles considered the mission of the old parties at an end, nothing 
 but their organizations and the prejudices and antagonisms engendered by them 
 
284 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 remaining. In the meantime new questions relating to the territorial policy of the 
 government as connected therewith arising, Mr. Welles, adhering to his original 
 principles, maintained the Jeffersonian doctrine that slavery was the creation of 
 local law, and should not be extended into the Territories through the agency of 
 federal authority. 
 
 The Missouri Compromise, followed by the Kansas aggressions, led to new party 
 organizations; the Republican party came into existence, and Mr. Welles was early 
 active and prominent in organizing it. In this State the Hartford Evening Press 
 was started to advocate its views, and Mr. Welles became one of its principal 
 contributors. In the spring of 1856 he was the candidate of the party for the 
 office of governor. 
 
 The Republican convention in Philadelphia in the same year appointed him a 
 member of the National Committee, and for eight years he was one of its execu- 
 tive members. He was also Chairman of the Connecticut delegation to the Con- 
 vention at Chicago which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency. 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln took the presidential chair in 1861, Mr. Welles was in- 
 vited to a seat in the Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy. The breaking out of 
 the rebellion soon made it evident that the post was one of the greatest responsi- 
 bility. The closing of the insurgent ports along a coast line of nearly three 
 thousand miles, under the exacting regulations of an international blockade, the 
 organization of combined naval and military expeditions to operate against various 
 points of the Southern coast and on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and 
 the pursuit of piratical cruisers, constituted a triple task, more difficult and arduous 
 in some respects than had previously been demanded of the maritime power of 
 any government. Mr. Welles took the ground in the outset that the government 
 ought not to declare 'a blockade, but by proclamation close our ports to foreign 
 commerce. If a blockade was declared, we proclaimed to the world that we were 
 dealing with an independant power, and must of necessity be governed by the 
 rules and practice of international law. If the ports were closed, we admitted only 
 ah insurrection on the part of the Southern States, a domestic affair which brought 
 violators under our municipal laws, to be treated according to the decision of our 
 own courts. The matter was warmly discussed in the Cabinet, and Mr. Welles, at 
 the request of the President, presented his views in writing. His paper was one 
 of very marked ability, discussed the matter from every point of view, and showed 
 a thorough knowledge of international law bearing on the point at issue. The 
 Cabinet was divided, and Mr. Lincoln finally yielded to the position taken by Mr. 
 Seward, and a blockade was declared. By this act the South was acknowledged 
 as belligerents, and the English were not slow to take advantage of it. Blockade- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 285 
 
 running flourished, privateers and vessels with the commission of the Confederacy 
 on the high seas had the same rights in neutral ports as our own men-of-war, 
 and we were estopped from complaint because we had ourselves recognized the 
 South as belligerents. Had the views advanced by Mr. Welles prevailed, the reverse 
 would have been the case, and we should have been in a large measure spared 
 the cost of maintaining the fleet necessary to patrol our coast in accordance with 
 the provisions of international law. Mr. Lincoln, as the war progressed, saw the 
 mistake, and regretted that the counsels of Mr. Welles had not prevailed. 
 
 It is not our purpose to detail or to follow to any extent the successive steps 
 which led to the creation of a naval force, whose operations during the war shed 
 a new lustre upon the naval history of the country ; but to be able to estimate 
 properly the great executive ability and remarkable foresight of the secretary, some 
 points should be touched upon. 
 
 When Mr. Welles assumed charge of the Navy department in 1861, the ^otal 
 force of the navy in commission, including tenders and store-ships, was 42 vessels, 
 carrying 555 guns and having a complement of 7600 men. A number of vessels, 
 mostly of an old class, and by no means well adapted to the service required, were 
 at the several navy yards and needing extensive repairs. 
 
 The Home Squadron consisted of but 12 vessels, carrying 187 guns, the remain- 
 der of the available force being upon foreign stations. The emergency demanded 
 a large increase of naval strength with as little delay as possible, and accordingly 
 the vessels upon foreign stations were ordered home, those at the navy-yards 
 were repaired, a new and powerful class of gun-boats were ordered to be built, 
 vessels in the merchant service were carefully examined, and those suitable for naval 
 purposes were purchased ; and in short the public navy-yards and private ship-yards 
 and machine shops of the country, and the best public and private talent were 
 brought into requisition, so that at the commencement of the session of Con- 
 gress, December 2d, 1861, Mr. Welles was able to report that when the vessels 
 repairing, building, and purchased were ready for use, there would be in the service 
 264 vessels, carrying 2557 guns, and that over two hundred of these vessels were 
 then in commission, the number of seamen being not less than 22,000. One year 
 later, December, 1862, and there were 427 vessels, carrying 3268 guns and 28,000 
 seamen: December, 1863, 588 vessels, carrying 4443 guns and 34,000 seamen; De- 
 cember, 1864, 671 vessels, carrying 4610 guns and 45,000 seamen. Many of these 
 vessels, built expressly for the service, were of the most modern construction and 
 of a powerful and effective character. 
 
 No such record has ever been shown by any other maritime power. It not 
 only attests the energy of the directing authority but in large measure the resources 
 of the country. 
 
286 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P^D I A. 
 
 Not less creditable were the measures adopted by Mr. Welles for the prompt 
 creation of a large force of iron-clad vessels. For two or three years France and 
 England had made the subject of armored ships a special object in connection with 
 naval improvements, but their experiments had not generally been regarded as suc- 
 cessful. The ingenuity and inventive faculties of our own countrymen having been 
 stimulated by the war towards the construction of this class of vessels, Mr. Welles 
 brought the matter to the notice of Congress at the extra session in July, i86r, 
 and $[,500,000 was appropriated for the building of one or more armored ships. 
 Three were contracted for, and one of them, the " Monitor," designed by Captain 
 Ericsson, was the victor in the first naval engagement in the world in which this 
 class of vessels were engaged. In the three months succeeding the adjournment 
 of the extra session of Congress and prior to its assembling in December, the 
 subject of iron-plated vessels was necessarily much considered, and so well satisfied 
 was Mr. Welles that they were destined to become an important and controlling 
 element in naval warfare, that at the opening of the December session he recom- 
 mended an appropriation of $12,000,000 for the construction of twenty vessels. As 
 no trial of this class had been made, the proposition, though evincing a thorough 
 comprehension of the wants of the naval service, was doubtless considered by 
 many to be bold and adventurous. The House of Representatives soon re- 
 sponded by making the necessary appropriation, but in the Senate the bill did 
 not come up for action. Impatient at the delay, in view of the condition of 
 the country and what an iron-clad force might accomplish, on the 3d of February, 
 1862, Mr. Welles addressed a letter to the Naval Committee of the Senate urging 
 immediate action upon the House bill. The Senate was stimulated to action by this, 
 and a bill authorizing the construction of twenty iron-clad vessels was approved on 
 the 13th of February. 
 
 The memorable engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac took place 
 on the 7th of March following, and immediately the public pulse in all sections of 
 the country beat high for armored ships. But the foresight of Mr. Welles had 
 anticipated the call of the people ; Congress had made the necessary appropriations, 
 and the work of constructing an iron-clad navy had already been commenced — a navy 
 which did honor to the inventive genius of the country, and reflected the highest 
 credit upon the Secretary under whose guidance and fostering care this great initiation 
 in a new naval policy was so successfully carried out. The steps taken by Mr. 
 
 Welles in the introduction of turretted iron-clad vessels and heavy ordnance both of 
 
 which are the outcome of our recent war — it is no exaggeration to say have revo- 
 lutionized the preparations for naval warfare throughout the world. 
 
 An important feature of domestic policy, so far as fugitive slaves were con- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.. 287 
 
 cerned, was early decided by Mr. Welles for his department. The army returned 
 escaped slaves or " Contrabands" to their masters, but the Secretary of the Navy took 
 a different course — he decided that if a loyal man, white or black, came on board our 
 ships from a rebel State, he was entitled to protection. As early as the middle of 
 July, 1 86 1, a commander of one of the vessels in the Rappahannock informed the 
 department that he had taken on board and rationed a number of negroes, and that 
 large numbers were deserting, hoping to be picked up by some passing vessel, and 
 inquired as to the disposition to be made of them. Mr. Welles, under date of July 
 2 2d, replied : 
 
 " It is not the policy of the government to invite or encourage this class of 
 desertions ; and yet, under the circumstances, no other course than that pursued by 
 Commander Glesson could be adopted without violating every principle of humanity. 
 To return them would be impolitic as well as crtiel ; and as you remark they may 
 be made serviceable on board our store-ships, you will do well to employ them." 
 The number of " contrabands" increasing largely, Mr. Welles determined to enlist 
 them for such service as they were able to perform, paying them as others were paid. 
 On the 25th of September, 1861, he issued to commandants of navy yards, com- 
 manders of squadrons, and others the following order: 
 
 " The department finds it necessary to adopt a regulation with respect to the 
 large and increasing number of persons of color, commonly known as contrabands, 
 now subsisted at navy-yards and on board ships-of-war. These can neither be 
 expelled from the service to which they have resorted, nor can they be maintained 
 unemployed, and it is not proper that they should be compelled to render necessary 
 and regular services without a stated compensation. You are therefore authorized, 
 when their services can be made useful, to enlist them for the naval service, under 
 the same forms and regulations as apply to other enlistments. They will be allowed, 
 however, no higher rating than boys, at a compensation of ten dollars per month 
 and one ration per day." ♦ 
 
 This was the first step in a direction which subsequently became the policy of 
 the government. It was inaugurated by Mr. Welles as Secretary of the Navy. To 
 return fugitive slaves to their masters " would violate every principle of humanity" — 
 " would be impolitic as well as cruel," and he therefore enlisted them for service, 
 giving them reasonable compensation. 
 
 Leaving out of view the successful achievements of the navy, there are many 
 other points which might be enumerated, indicating unmistakably Mr. Welles' fore- 
 sight and successful administrative ability. He was a good judge of character, and 
 called to his aid and placed in important positions the best naval talent for the 
 work in hand, and if an officer failed in his duty his previous reputation and official 
 
288 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 position was no bar to his removal. Mr. Welles was persistent and resolute under 
 all discouragements, infusing a patriotic and union sentiment into the service, and 
 animating it with a spirit which made itself felt in the successful conflicts which, 
 under his administration, added largely to our naval renown. 
 
 Mr. Welles held the office of Secretary of the Navy during the entire period of 
 President Lincoln's Administration and that of his successor. President Johnson — two 
 full terms, and longer than any of his predecessors. When differences arose relative 
 to the reconstruction measures, Mr. Welles resisted the idea that the States lately in 
 rebellion should be considered out of the Union, or deprived of their constitutional 
 rights, and claimed that many of the measures adopted by Congress with reference to 
 them were quite as repugnant and destructive to our republican system as the attempt 
 of a State to withdraw or secede. He adhered to his life-long principles, and much 
 distress would have been avoided had his views prevailed. 
 
 Mr. Welles was always reported a warm partisan because he was strong in his 
 beliefs and earnest in their maintenance, but the history of his life shows that he fol- 
 lowed his ideas of right, whether along or across party lines. In the performance of 
 official duty, however arduous and important, Mr. Welles always avoided and disliked 
 all obtrusiveness and ostentation. He never sought to create a sensation ; clearness 
 and sobriety of judgment, enlarged and accurate appreciation of the wants of that arm 
 of the public defence he was called to strengthen and to wield, indefatigable industry and 
 perseverance in labor, and an unshaken firmness of purpose, resulting from patient reflec- 
 tion upon which his conclusions had been formed ; these are some of the qualities 
 which characterized him as an administrative officer. In his relations to the general 
 politics of the country and the policy of the Administration of which he was a mem- 
 ber, he left upon the minds of all who knew him, and indeed upon the whole country, 
 a deep impression of the wise and just moderation of his views as a statesman, of his 
 conscientious devotion to fixed political principles, of unflinching courage in the main- 
 tenance of his convictions, and above all, of an absolute honesty of purpose which 
 defied all temptation and which no enemy ventured to impeach. 
 
 Soon after retiring from the Navy department, Mr. Welles purchased a residence 
 in Charter Oak place, in Hartford, where he continued to reside. His leisure 
 hours were to some extent employed in essays and compiling accounts of important 
 events connected with the rebellion, and the Administration of which he was a 
 member, most of which were published in the Galaxy or the Atlantic Monthly. 
 Mr. Welles, during his Washington residence, kept a diary of important and inside 
 occurrences, notably of discussions at Cabinet meetings, and the opinions of distin- 
 guished men upon pubHc events as gathered in personal interviews. This record enabled 
 him authoritatively to correct many statements put forth as history, placing impor- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P^D I A . 289 
 
 tant events in their true light, and giving to individuals their proper positions. He 
 was an ardent, enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Lincoln — who relied much upon the practical 
 good sense and judgment of Mr. Welles, and he has many times prevented otliers 
 from seizing laurels which belonged to the martyred President. A notable instance 
 was an attempt to make it appear that Mr. Seward was virtually President, Mr. 
 Lincoln occupying a secondary position. Mr. Welles exposed the falsity of this 
 claim so thoroughly that no attempt was made to refute his positions — fact was 
 piled upon fact ^so abundantly that no room was left for controversy. These papers, 
 originally published in the Galaxy, were subsequently gathered, somewhat extended, 
 and republished in a volume. Some of his other important papers were upon the 
 capture of New Orleans ; the fight at Fort Sumter ; Fort Pickens ; capture of 
 Mobile ; the facts of the abandonment of the Gosport navy yard ; Lincoln and 
 Johnson ; their plan of reconstruction and resumption of national authority ; the 
 administration of Abraham Lincoln, etc. His last articles, passing through the press 
 at the time of his death, were a series in the Atlantic Monthly defending Mr. Lin- 
 coln from charges made by General Dick Taylor in an article in the North 
 A merican Review. 
 
 For fifty years Mr. Welles was a constant and prolific political writer, and his 
 essays, habitually bringing to the test of fixed principles the policy of successive 
 administrations, largely contributed to give interest to several leading journals, and 
 character to the politics of the country. Among the papers to which he was a 
 large contributor, besides those of his own State, the Globe and the Union at Wash- 
 ington, and the Evening Post at New York, have been conspicuous. As a writer 
 he was fresh, clear, and forcible, and these qualities were conspicuous in his dispatches 
 as Secretary of the Navy. He was in constant correspondence with the State 
 Department upon matters growing out of the blockade, and some of his dispatches 
 are models of vigorous composition. Charles Sumner, who read many of them, said 
 that he considered him the strongest and best writer in the Cabinet. Mr. Welles 
 was not a public speaker, and rarely indulged in public extemporaneous remarks — 
 his newspaper life had educated him to use the pen with great facility and power, 
 and herein was his strength, rather than the rostrum. 
 
 It was Mr. Welles's habit, for exercise, to walk daily from his residence in 
 Hartford, through Main Street as far as Christ Church, and he was a notable 
 figure upon the streets. His tall commanding form, his erect frame, and his vener- 
 able and dignified bearing, marked him at sight as a man not of the ordinary 
 type, and the recollection of him as he has been seen from day to day among us 
 will remain for a long time to come. He was married in 1835 to Miss Mary J. 
 Hale, daughter of Elias W. Hale Esq., a distinguished lawyer of central Pennsyl- 
 
 J9 
 
2c,o BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 vania, who, with three sons, survives him— Edgar F., Thomas G., and John A., all 
 of Hartford. In private circles he was social to a remarkable degree, and was 
 never happier than when surrounded by his family and friends. His long news- 
 paper and public life gave him unusual opportunities for becoming intimately 
 acquainted with prominent men and the inside history of events extending back 
 for more than half a century, and he delighted to impart his impressions to others. 
 No one could spend an hour with him without being entertained and instructed. 
 He was of marked simplicity of character— remarkably free from ostentation and 
 show, and always just what he appeared to be. He was idolized by his family 
 and respected by all, and passed away universally honored and lamented. 
 
 The Legislature of the State of Connecticut was in session at Hartford at the 
 time of the death of Mr. Welles, which, notwithstanding his advanced age, was a 
 shock to the people of the State as well as the whole country, and as one of 
 the State's most eminent citizens passed touching resolutions of respect, which, 
 with some of the remarks thereon, we subjoin. 
 
 The Late Hon, Gideon Welles. 
 Resolutions of Respect. 
 
 Mr. Andrews of Litchfield, spoke as follows: 
 
 Mr. Speaker: To-day one of the most eminent of the citizens of this com- 
 monwealth will be carried to his grave. For more than half a century Gideon 
 Welles has ranked among the foremost people of Connecticut. For two decades 
 he has been prominent throughout the entire nation. Dying while we are in 
 session in this the city of his residence, it is altogether fitting that the General 
 Assembly should show some marks of respect to his memory. I desire to offer 
 these resolutions. I will ask the clerk to read them. 
 
 The resolutions were then read as follows : 
 
 General Assembly, ] 
 January Session, a.d., 1878. | 
 
 Resolved by this Assembly. That we, the representatives of the people of Con- 
 necticut, learn with deep regret the recent decease of the distinguished citizen and 
 patriot, Gideon Welles. His life was one long tribute to the American love of liberty 
 and national unity, those constitutional principles of free government established by 
 the fathers, to the present standard of New England integrity in private and public 
 hfe. His native State will ever remember his earnest devotion to the cause of his 
 country in her hour of peril, and his faithful and successful performance of duty in all 
 public stations to which he was called, and especially while serving as a member of 
 the Cabinet. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA . 291 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be recorded in the journals of the Senate and 
 House of Representatives, and be published with the special acts of the session. 
 
 Mr. Andrews, subsequently Governor Andrews, spoke upon the resolutions, giving 
 a resume of Mr. Welles' life, and closed as follows: "The political questions which 
 followed the close of the Mexican War, and the agitation consequent therefrom, 
 resulted in the formation of a party opposed to the extension of slavery. With this 
 policy Mr. Welles early identified himself and was prominent in its counsels; and 
 when, in i860, that party obtained control of the National Administration, he was 
 invited to a seat in the Cabinet of President Lincoln. The events of that Adminis- 
 tration, of the part which Mr. Welles took in it, his efforts throughout the war, and 
 of his life since, are too recent to need mention. It is well known that Mr. Lincoln 
 had a very great personal fondness for Mr. Welles, that he enjoyed his society and 
 trusted in his counsel. All the friends of Mr. Lincoln remember with grateful dis- 
 tinctness the ability and readiness with which Mr. Welles sprang to his defence from 
 the breath of unjust comparison. All detractors, whether high or low, have learned, to 
 their humiUating discomfiture, that so long as Gideon Welles was alive they could not 
 lay their unhallowed touch upon the least of the laurels that justl)^ belong to the 
 brow of the martyred President. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, 1 had no personal acquaintance with Mr. Welles, and must leave 
 to others the duty of loving eulogy. But this long life of his, spent in high posi- 
 tions — in positions of trust and of great responsibility — and through it all his sturdy 
 integrity, his never-failing courage, his abounding patriotism and his love for his 
 native State, afford an example to which all his surviving friends and fellow-citizens 
 can look back with pride and honest satisfaction." 
 
 Mr. McManus, of Hartford, the next speaker, said: 
 
 "Mr. Speaker: In common with the nation and State, my native city to-day 
 mourns under the affliction of more than ordinary calamity. The State has lost an 
 honest and efficient citizen ; an affectionate family has lost a cherished parent ; many 
 of us have lost a personal friend. But, overshadowing all this, the country has been 
 compelled to part with one of her most illustrious heroes and wisest statesmen. 
 The historic character of our country's gravest crisis are rapidly passing away. The 
 young men of 1861 are greybeards now ; the wise and prudent statesmen of that 
 period — the men whose wisdom directed the counsels of our armies and fleets to 
 victory — have dropped into the grave, and as we call upon their names only an 
 occasional feeble response is uttered by some surviving veteran. We turn with jus- 
 tifiable pride to the history of Connecticut's able sons, to the long line of her 
 officers and men in the fleet and field, to her civil representatives in the national 
 councils, Dixon, Buckingham, Foster, Doming, and their associates. And looking still 
 
292 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 upward among those invested with still graver responsibilities, we see the venerable 
 figure of our own fellow-citizen, his sixty years refined to almost boyish youth by an 
 untiring patriotic head, combining the wisdom of his age with the indefatigable activ- 
 ity of early manhood. He was not a mere creation of the excitement of the hour. 
 His tongue had never learned the arts of flattery and dissimulation, and in his 
 younger days he could never count upon the popularity of the crowds. His acces- 
 sion to the numerous positions of public trust and honor with which he was 
 invested was in consequence of merit, and not because he could inspire a personal 
 campaign enthusiasm. Thfese venerable walls, that now look upon the last Legisla- 
 ture that ever will assemble here, have often echoed with the sound of his voice. 
 Our statute book is enriched with the results of his wisdom. In various depart- 
 ments of the State and National Governments he proved himself possessor of those 
 indispensable qualities of executive ability that were recognized by the eagle eye of 
 the President, and crowned his honors with the most exalted station next to the 
 Chief Magistracy that the honest ambition of an American could aspire to, and 
 after an exceptionally long and continuous service in the Cabinet, after having dis- 
 charged his onerous duties with a satisfaction to the public, rare indeed, when not a 
 few, and even friends, were more disposed to criticism than to generosity, he re- 
 turned to our midst a private citizen — one of the last of the great men. For 
 years his venerable and imposing form has been a familiar and agreeable presence 
 amongst us, and we fondly hoped that Providence would graciously lengthen out his 
 honorable years that he might remain with us a living tower, connecting the painful 
 present with the tumultuous past ; but no life, however illustrious, can extend the limits 
 of inexorable nature. 
 
 " Death has claimed the statesman as well as the pontiff" and the king. And so 
 with the illustrious dead of our State; with the Shermans and the Trumbulls, the 
 Wolcotts, the Seymours, the Ellsworths, Mansfield, Lyon, and McDonough, we reve- 
 rently consign the name and fame of the departed statesman to the pages of 
 history — to the admiration of the American people." 
 
 After a few words by Mr. Mooney, of Newtown, the resolutions were passed 
 unanimously by a rising vote, the rules were suspended, and the resolutions ordered 
 transmitted to the Senate. The House then, in respect to the memory of Mr. 
 Welles, adjourned, 
 
\/c^/>^^ 
 
 I,! A::ir'i-;s:wH.F<'«"TE i> v, \\ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 293 
 
 ,|lOOTE, ANDREW HULL, of New Haven, Conn., Admiral United States 
 iM^t- Navy. Born September 12th, 1806, in that city. He was of the eighth gen- 
 eration in lineal descent from Nathaniel Foote, who came from England 
 to Watertown, Mass., in 1630, and who, in 1635, settled at Wethersfield, 
 of which he was one of the original proprietors, and in which he died, in 
 His son Robert, from vi^hom Admiral Foote descended, removed to Branford, 
 Conn., of which he was one of the first settlers. Members of the Foote family 
 have since then been chiefly addicted to agriculture, but have also filled every respon- 
 sible position in social and civil life, and by sturdy intelligence and sterling worth 
 have largely contributed to build up the good old commonwealth of Connecticut. 
 
 The great-grandfather and the grandfather of Admiral Foote were pastors of 
 the Congregational church in Cheshire — the latter for nearly fifty years. His father 
 was Samuel Augustus Foote, Governor of Connecticut in 1834-5, and United States 
 Senator from 1827 to 1833. His mother, nee Eudocia Hull, was the daughter of 
 General Andrew Hull, of Cheshire. 
 
 While a member of the National Senate, Governor Foote moved the passage of 
 resolutions which bore mainly on the final disposal of the public lands and the 
 proceeds of their sales. The object he had in view was to provoke the Southern 
 members, who held nullification principles, to show their colors in public discussion. 
 The attempt was successful, and " Foote's Resolutions" gave occasion to the celebrated 
 passage of arms between Webster and Hayne. The unshrinking courage of the 
 Connecticut senator on that occasion was prophetic of the heroic daring to be 
 exhibited by his son when the war of words should eventually pass into that of 
 rifled cannon. 
 
 Governor Foote trained his family on strict Biblical principles. His supreme 
 authority was never doubted, and unquestioning obedience was the law of domestic 
 life. Idleness" was regarded as a great sin, and industry as an exemplary duty. Plain 
 diet, simple apparel, hard work, deference to parents, reverence for the Sabbath, reg- 
 ular attendance upon public worship and all religious ordinances, characterized his 
 household, as they did all sober Puritan households in " the land of steady habits." 
 Andrew proved to be a lively, frolicsome boy, and the leader of his young compan- 
 ions. While a wee bit of a lad, he had his first ram fight with an infuriated merino 
 sheep that charged viciously upon his little brother. The battle was a drawn one, but 
 the honors remained with the boy. Genial, kind and popular, he was never quarrel- 
 some, but at the same time was always ready to defend his rights against aggression. 
 His desire to become a sailor probably originated in his own peculiar temperament, 
 and was strengthened by his father's occasional voyages to the West Indies as super- 
 cargo of one of his own vessels. The war of 18 12, with its long series of brilliant 
 
294 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 naval exploits, often recounted in his hearing, doubtless imparted additional intensity 
 to his maritime longing. 
 
 In 1812 the family removed from New Haven to Cheshire, in the same county, 
 and resided there until the death of Governor Foote in 1846. In the schools of 
 Cheshire he acquired the preparation necessary to pass the examination given to all 
 candidates for the West Point Mihtary Academy, which he entered in June, 1822. 
 But the naval, not the mihtary profession, was his choice, and in December of the 
 same year he was transferred to the navy, being appointed acting midshipman 
 on board the schooner Grampus, under Commander Gregory, Promptness and 
 discipline were learned in a " rough and ready" school. The science of navigation 
 was mastered by assiduous study of books, assisted by daily practical lessons. His 
 supreme ambition was to make himself a perfect naval officer. 
 
 Perils and hardships of severest character greeted the youthful neophyte from the 
 very beginning of his career. His vessel was employed in scourging the pirates of 
 the West Indies from the seas, and in conjunction with other American ships accom- 
 plished the undertaking with thoroughness. The terrible curse of piracy was swept 
 from that part of the ocean. Professor J. M. Hoppin* states that " not unfrequently 
 the wily foe, who eluded pursuit in a thousand ways, turned and challenged the 
 avengers of blood to hand-to-hand conflict. For six months of the time officers went 
 out boating in these stormy waters, and it is said that young Foote personally distin- 
 guished himself in this service. He certainly acquired those habits of discipline, skill, 
 and daring which afterward were so useful to him, and which could not have been 
 learned under the best masters on shore." 
 
 On the 6th of December, 1823, he was transferred to the Peacock, and on the 
 nth received his warrant as midshipman. On September 8th, 1824, he was transferred 
 to the frigate United States, which was then employed in guarding American interests 
 in the South Pacific, during the wars for the independence of the South American 
 Republics. While on that station he visited Lima, spent several days very pleas- 
 antly, and was a very keen and curious observer of Peruvian manners and customs. 
 Returning to New York, April 25th, 1827, he successfully underwent his examination 
 for passed midshipman. On the 20th of August he was sent oflF for a second 
 cruise in the West Indies, first in the Natches, and afterwards in the Hornet, to 
 which he was transferred, October 8th, 1827. While serving on the Natches one of 
 the lieutenants spoke to him on religious subjects. Andrew "bluffed him off"" by 
 saying that he aimed to be honorable and honest in all things, and that would 
 do for him. Soon afterward the officer spoke to him again, and he saw that 
 honor and honesty in all things necessarily involved entire consecration to the service 
 * Life of Admiral Foote. New York, Harper Brothers. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 295 
 
 of his Maker. "As soon as he was released from duty, he took his Bible and 
 went into the steerage, and read it under great agitation of mind. This he did 
 for two weeks, when, upon going on deck one day, he came to the resolution 
 that ' henceforth, under all circumstances, he would act for God ; ' upon which his 
 mental anguish and trouble vanished." 
 
 That was the turning point in the young officer's life. He had entered upon 
 the road that unerringly leads to real greatness and true success. He had adopted 
 right principles, received the highest and purest impulses, and from thenceforward to 
 the close of his checquered and glorious life never failed " to act for God." 
 
 Invincible will in right-doing was his prominent characteristic. Catholic in his 
 opinions ; free, open, and generous in his intercourse with men ; he won golden 
 opinions from the calmest judges. His commander. Captain Budd, of the Natckes, 
 expressed the universal estimate when he commended young Foote as a " gentle- 
 man of the first respectability ; and of the finest principles and feelings." Soon 
 after his conversion, scruples arose in his mind as to the rightfulness of his pro- 
 fession as a calling. These scruples were confided to his father, who very wisely 
 removed them by asking if he did not suppose a navy to be necessary ; and, con- 
 sidering it to be necessary,- if there should not be good men and Christian men in 
 it. He was never troubled again by similar doubts. 
 
 During a brief stay on shore in 1828 he was married to his first wife, Caroline, 
 daughter of Bethuel Flagg, of Cheshire. She died in 1838, having borne him two 
 children, of whom the eldest, Josephine, lived but four years. 
 
 In October, 1828, he again sailed for his old station on the Pacific, as sailing- 
 master in the sloop-of-war St. Louis. On his return in December, 1831, he found a 
 lieutenant's commission, dated May 27th, 1830, awaiting him. In January, 1832, he 
 was assigned to the Delaware, seventy-four ship of the line, and was appointed 
 flag-lieutenant of the squadron. In the cruise which followed he visited many of 
 the historic points up the Nile, in Egypt, and also in the Holy Land. Landing 
 at Joppa, he went to Jerusalem, explored the valley of the Jordan, sailed on the 
 Dead Sea, climbed Mount Lebanon, and looked with reverent delight on the scenes 
 that had been hallowed by the presence of his Lord and Saviour. In November, 
 1837, he was assigned as first-lieutenant, or executive officer, to the sloop-of-war John 
 Adams, and began a voyage which was really one of circumnavigation of the globe. 
 They sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Bombay, Canton, Manila, the 
 Sandwich and Society Islands, the coast of Chili, and doubled Cape Horn. At the 
 Sandwich Islands he displayed his characteristic thoroughness, energy, and justice by 
 taking the part of the excellent and apostolic American missionaries against the 
 machinations of the French Romanist missionaries, backed as the latter were by a 
 
296 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 bullying French naval captain. The rigid ecclesiastical discipline instituted by the 
 Americans, their uncompromising opposition to intoxicating liquors, and the marked 
 preference awarded to the Protestant faith by the natives, were the real head and 
 front of our missionaries' offending. Lieutenant Foote's action proceeded on the 
 principle, now universally recognized, that American missionaries are American citi- 
 zens, and as such— wherever they may be— entitled to the full and complete protec- 
 tion of their country's flag. The church owes a constant debt of gratitude to the 
 memory of Admiral Foote for the important service he rendered on that occasion. 
 An extract from his private diary, written during this voyage, unintentionally but 
 eloquently shows what manner of man he was : " Our Father, I renew to thee this 
 day my obligations and vows to be thine — wholly thine. ... I come with the 
 desire to be taught of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit, so to live and act 
 in my situation as to thy glory, and that my highest ambition may ever lie in 
 being conformed to the will of God. Amen." 
 
 Detached from the John Adams in June, 1840, Lieutenant Foote was next 
 appointed November 22d, 1841, to the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia; and, after 
 Commodore Barron's resignation, the full charge of that institution during the last, 
 two years of the administration of Secretary Upshur, was placed in his hands. The 
 Naval Academy grew out of the Naval Asylum, the purely educational part of it 
 having been transferred to Annapolis. No naval officer was better fitted than he to 
 organize and mature the preparatory schools which are essential to the existence of 
 our own and every great naval power. In this duty, as in all others, whatsoever 
 his hand found to do he did with all his might, and did it well. The good order, 
 high disciphne, and moral tone of our naval schools, asylums, and ship-yards are as 
 much due to his character and labors as to those of any other man. " He was one 
 of the first to introduce the reform of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks into 
 the navy." He first signed the pledge himself, and then others readily followed him. 
 He taught by example, as well as precept, all the moral duties of mankind. In 
 professional ones the same remark holds true. " In all matters of strictly professional 
 education and culture, the principles of navigation, practical seamanship, gunnery, 
 naval tactics, and ship-building," he was a thorough master, and left nothing to 
 subordinates that he could do himself. 
 
 On the 27th of January, 1842, Lieutenant Foote married for his second wife, 
 Caroline A., daughter of Augustus R. Street, of New Haven— a gentleman of wealth 
 and culture, and the generous founder of the Yale College Art School. Five 
 children— three sons and two daughters — were the fruit of the un-ion. Two of the 
 sons survived the death of their parents. 
 
 In August, 1843, he was ordered, as first-lieutenant, to the Cumberland, under 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y CLO FJE.D I A. 297 
 
 Captain Breese. Under Foote's labors, the Cumberland became the first temperance 
 ship in the United States Navy. In later years she acquired undying renown by 
 her losing conflict with the iron-clad Merrimac. Flag flying, and crew cheering, she 
 delivered her last fire at her country's foes, and then went down unconquered and 
 unstained. 
 
 Suffering from ophthalmia, contracted on boating service in Mediterranean waters, 
 he was, on his return to Boston in 1845, furloughed for six months, and in June, 
 1846, was made executive-officer of the Boston Navy Yard — a post he continued to 
 hold until June ist, 1848. While in this position he invented the bow-propeller. 
 The object of placing the propeller in the bow was to produce by its motion a 
 partial vacuum or eddy, throwing the water aside that would otherwise rise in front 
 and around, and offer resistance to the bow of the vessel in proportion to' the 
 vessel's velocity. Whatever merit may be in the invention, it was not adopted by 
 the Chief of the Bureau of Construction. 
 
 More arduous and exhausting professional service than any hitherto exacted was 
 next required of the indefatigable worker. On September 28th, 1849, he was assigned 
 to the command of the brig Perry, and ordered to the coast of Africa, for the 
 protection of American commerce, and the suppression of the slave-trade. His 
 papers, log-book, private journal, and especially his work, entitled Africa and the 
 American Flag, show how zealously and efficiently he performed his duty. The 
 slave-trade to him was disgusting and extremely abominable. There' is genuine force 
 in his statement that " if ever there were anything on earth which, for revolting, 
 filthy, heartless atrocity, might make the devil wonder and hell recognize its own 
 likeness, it was on one of the decks of an old slaver." His efforts to annihilate the 
 diabolical traffic were largely crowned with success, and received the warm and 
 merited encomiums' of his superior officers. Uncommonly punctilious in all matters 
 involving national honor, he extended and commanded the respect due from the 
 vessels of one great nation to another. He neither offered nor would submit to 
 slight or insult of any kind. The Government and the nation alike approved his 
 course, nor was that greater public, composed of modern Christendom, at all grudging 
 of its praise. 
 
 The beginning of the year 1852 found the veteran sea-rover at his pleasant 
 home in New Haven, where for the period of more than four years he was per- 
 mitted to dwell. Congress had one of its fits of retrenchment and economy, and 
 practised the spasmodic virtue wherever it was likely to prove most expensive in 
 the end. Foote employed his enforced leisure by lecturing on temperance and 
 kindred themes — especially upon Christian missions. His robust faith, and clear 
 perception of passing events, convinced him of the ultimate and not far distant 
 
298 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 triumph of Christianity. He also wrote his book on Africa and the American 
 Flag, which contains much that has been cited as authority from the bench of 
 United State courts. Critics attach high value to its ethnography, and also to its 
 exposition of the relations between the United States and Africa. He also published 
 an address on the " Ashburton Treaty," and " Consular Sea- Letters," which won him 
 considerable reputation as a international legist. 
 
 In December, 1852, Lieutenant Foote was promoted to the rank of commander, 
 and on March 9th, 1854, was made executive-officer to the Naval Asylum in Phila- 
 delphia. On June 20th, 1855, he served on the "Naval Efficienc)'' Board" at 
 Washington, in association with many other distinguished commanders, and on 
 April 5th, 1856, was appointed to the Portsmouth, and ordered to the East India 
 station. At Whampoa, in China, and also at Canton, he organized companies of 
 men, and established fortified posts for the protection of American life and property. 
 The Chinese failed to appreciate his efforts properly, and fired upon his boat while 
 returning from Canton to the San Jacinto at Whampoa. The outrageous insult 
 was speedily avenged by the capture and destruction of the " Barrier Forts" in the 
 Canton River. The fiery bravery and military skill of Commander Foote, as exem- 
 plified on that occasion, received the loudest praises of the English and the French. 
 The ship of Sir Michael Seymour, the British Admiral, and also his Commodore's 
 vessel, manned the rigging, and gave three rousing cheers for the Portsmouth, while 
 the bands struck up " Flail ! Columbia" and " Yankee Doodle" — a compliment rarely 
 paid to our ships by rival nations. Commander Foote's prompt and vigorous action 
 produced most salutary results, and paved the way for the advantageous treaties 
 afterward negotiated by Mr. Reed and Mr, Burlingame. It was also honored by the 
 cordial approval of the American Government, and of the British civil and naval 
 officials. The destruction of the " Barrier Forts" was completed in ten working 
 days. The Sabbath of course intervened, and in one of his dispatches to the 
 Commodore, Foote wrote : " We don't work, of course, to-day. I have preached 
 aboard and in the fort." A true Cromwellian Ironside, he could pray, and preach, 
 and fight too — when occasion required — with a downright sincerity and vigor that 
 never failed to secure profound respect. 
 
 Leaving China, the Portsmouth next visited Siam, where Foote called upon 
 the missionaries in state, in order that the natives might be induced to pay them 
 more respect. In Siam his visit proved to be beneficent to all parties, native and 
 foreign. In Japan he dealt as energetically and justly with the natives as he had 
 done in other lands, and with equally benign results. When, on June 13th, 1858, 
 he cast anchor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he had sailed, since leaving the 
 United States, no less than forty-nine thousand miles, and had left behind him, in 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 299 
 
 every place at which he had touched, memories that commanded profound respect, 
 and in some instances added genuine gratitude. 
 
 After a few months' rest he was appointed to the command of the United 
 States Navy Yard at Brooklyn, N. Y., October 20th, 1858. His thoughts were 
 much engrossed with benevolent, religious, and political matters germane to the pub- 
 lic welfare. He established and carried out, as in former years at the Boston and 
 Philadelphia Navy Yards, a regular system of religious instruction and of mission- 
 schools among the operatives of the yard, and of the neglected outlying districts. 
 In the religious revival of 1859-60, on board the receiving-ship North Carolina, 
 he was an active and joyous participant, and was immediately instrumental in the 
 conversion of many. He was also noted as a rigid disciplinarian, a friend of the 
 friendless, an advocate of education, and an incorruptible and most devoted patriot 
 
 The times were portentous. Political agitations were rife. Threats of secession 
 were numerous and sincere. High officials were basely treacherous. When Presi- 
 dent Lincoln was inaugurated on the 4th of March, i860, the epoch was one of 
 deepest gloom. Ships of war were either out of commission, or had been ordered 
 to distant parts of the world, and with the exception of the store-ship Relief, of 
 2 guns, the steam-frigate Brooklyn, of 25 guns, which had just before arrived at 
 Norfolk, after a three years' cruise, was the only armed vessel on the Atlantic 
 coast, and, moreover, drew too much water to enter Southern harbors, or to operate 
 efficiently in the earliest scenes of the war. The Secretary of the Navy reported 
 259 desertions and dismissions of officers from the Navy alone during the follow- 
 ing year. The Republic seemed to be on the edge of destructive rocks, and the 
 shots fired at Sumter on the 13th of April presaged utter disruption and ruin. 
 The nation needed all the skill and valor of her true sons, and foremost among 
 them all appeared the gallant and heroic Foote. His worth and capacity were fully 
 recognized. In the hour of need the Government gladly turned to him, and to men 
 like him. He was commissioned Captain on June 29th, 1861, and on August 30th, 
 was directed to assume command of naval operations in the Western waters. 
 
 The conffict between the Merrimac and the Monitor, which ended in the vic- 
 tory of the " Yankee cheese-box," as the latter was designated by the rebels, wrought 
 a complete revolution in naval architecture. An invulnerable host of mail-clad vessels 
 soon swarmed in the Atlantic waters, and it was resolved to make a similar fact 
 apparent in the Western rivers. General Fremont was convinced of the need of a 
 fleet of gun-boats to co-operate with the army, and to command the Mississippi 
 and its tributaries. When that fleet was finally constructed, under the successive com- 
 mand of Rodgers and Foote, and especially of the latter, who brought it to perfec- 
 tion, and carried it into operation, it consisted of twelve gun-boats, seven of them 
 
300 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 iron-clad, able to resist all except the heaviest solid shot, and costing about $89,000 
 each. The boats were built very wide in proportion to their length, so that on the 
 smooth river waters they possessed great steadiness when discharging their heavy guns. 
 The names of the boats, the Benton, Essex, Mound City, Cincinnati, Louisville, Car- 
 ondelet, St. Louis, Cairo, Pittsburgh, Lexington, Conestoga, and Taylor, will be for 
 ever memorable in the annals of the American Navy. 
 
 The preparation of those unique vessels was Captain Foote's first care. They 
 speedily became the terror of secession and rebellion on the Mississippi, Cumberland, 
 and Tennessee rivers. Their creation was justly regarded by the energetic and experi- 
 enced hero as the greatest achievement of his life. Fighting with them he looked 
 upon as an altogether secondary matter. 
 
 The first service in which they were engaged was at the fight of Lucas's Bend, 
 some miles below Cairo. Before five o'clock in the afternoon they had silenced the 
 enemy's batteries, and driven his forces out of reach, and that without any damage 
 to themselves. Gradually feeling its way to more important results, the flotilla 
 greatly weakened the rebel, and correspondingly strengthened the Union, cause. 
 Captain Foote never acted until fully ready ; but when he did act it was invariably 
 with all the force and resources at his command. Had his energies been untram- 
 melled by ill-defined association with the military generals in command of the army, 
 he would doubtless have inflicted his deathful blows upon the foes of the nation at 
 a much earlier day. His zeal, wisdom, and manifold abilities, however, triumphed 
 over every obstacle, and won him a naval renown unsurpassed by that of any pre- 
 decessor, contemporary, or successor. 
 
 On the 13th of November, 1861, he received the oflicial rank of flag-officer, but 
 before that date he was the regularly appointed commander-in-chief of the Western 
 waters. As flag-officer, his rank corresponded with that of major-general in the army. 
 His command was independent, and yet his movements were largely under the 
 direction of the military authorities. This anomalous position caused him great 
 annoyance, which rose to such a height under the administration of General Hal- 
 lock, that at one time he solicited transference to a separate naval command. But 
 his request was not conceded, because the Government had unlimited confidence in 
 his ability and adaptation to the work assigned. Sinking all personal grievances, he 
 devoted himself, like a true patriot, to the task before him, and accomplished it so 
 successfully as to earn an indisputable title to the admiration and gratitude of his 
 country. 
 
 On the 7th of November, 1861, the gunboats performed signal service at the 
 battle of Belmont, covering with accurate fire the retreat of the national troops, and 
 thus preventing them from being almost, if not entirely, cut to pieces. On the 6th 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 301 
 
 of February, 1862, he co-operated with General Grant in the assault upon Fort 
 Henry on the Tennessee River. The state of the roads would not allow the army 
 to come up in time for the fight ; and when it did arrive, nothing was left for it 
 to do, except to take possession of the fort which the fleet had already captured. 
 The impetuosity of the sailors had carried all before it. " A few minutes before the 
 surrender," writes the Confederate historian Pollard, "the scene in and around the 
 fort exhibited a spectacle of fierce grandeur." " The black sides of five or six gun- 
 boats, belching fire at every port-hole," and pouring a storm of shot and shell upon 
 the devoted stronghold, soon compelled General Tilghman, the rebel commander, to 
 raise the white flag. He remarked: "It is vain to fight longer. Our gunners are 
 disabled — our guns dismounted. We can't hold out five minutes longer." As soon 
 as the sign of surrender was hoisted, the gunboats came alongside the fort, and took 
 possession of it, their crews giving three cheers for the Union. 
 
 The capture of Fort Henry was a brilliant success, and was also prophetic of 
 the eventual triumph of the Union arms. That post was the key of the rebel 
 possessions in the West. Its downfall emboldened both army and navy in the sub- 
 sequent attack upon Fort Donelson. The desperate battles of Pittsburgh, Shiloh, and 
 Corinth were logical and necessary consequences. In the assault, Foote displayed the 
 same qualities as in the destruction of the Chinese " Barrier Forts." Cool, scrupu- 
 lous, cautious preparation was followed by rapid, close, concentrated, and desperate 
 fighting. The ancient scourge of the West Indian pirates had calculated every 
 chance and every mishap; and when the moment -for the death-grapple came, he 
 threw away all care and fear, and fought with a fury that no fortitude could 
 withstand. 
 
 On the first Sunday after the capture of Fort Henry, Flag-Officer Foote gave 
 another proof of his signal loyalty to the Great Captain of his salvation He went 
 to attend divine worship in the Presbyterian church at Cairo, "and found a full 
 congregation assembled, but no preacher present. With his promptitude for business, 
 seeing that no one else took the lead in the emergency, he went to the deacons 
 and endeavored to persuade them to conduct the service. Failing in this, he him- 
 self mounted the pulpit, read the Scriptures, made a prayer, and preached a short 
 discourse from the words, " Let not your hearts be troubled ; ye believe in God ; 
 believe also in me." When the sermon, which was listened to attentively by a 
 delighted audience, was concluded, an army chaplain, who had in the meantime 
 entered the house, stepped up to the commodore and expressed himself greatly 
 pleased with the discourse. The commodore replied pleasantly (in no sharp terms 
 of rebuke, as it was represented), that the chaplain should have come forward and 
 taken his place." — Hoppins Life of Admiral Foote, p. 218. The gallant flag-ofificer 
 
302 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 was ever ready to show his faith by his works, but why he should have decided 
 that he vi^ould never again attempt lay preaching we can only conjecture. He was 
 certainly entitled to respectful^ hearing from all, and the universal testimony was that 
 his discourses were excellent. He may have been influenced to some extent by the 
 opinions, and even by the commendations, of friends like Commodore Smith, who 
 wrote as follows : " I hardly know for which vocation to award you the meed of 
 greatest praise, as a first-rate flag-officer, or as a 'preacher' — no matter which, as 
 you are in high estimation in both." 
 
 The siege and capture of Fort Donelson followed next. Floyd wrote to Richmond 
 from that fortress, " Have no fear about us. The place is impregnable ; the enemy 
 can never take it." The " enemy" did take it, however, and in the taking Foote's sub- 
 lime daring and indomitable spirit shone with their wonted lustre. Twenty-five thou- 
 sand troops garrisoned the beleaguered place, which was fortified with consummate 
 skill, and defended by numerous and powerful batteries of artillery. Foote steamed up 
 in his usual bold manner, to within three or four hundred yards of their mouths, 
 and opened a rapid, precise, and destructive fire. The shot and shell from the fleet 
 ploughed into the lower batteries, dismounting guns and driving away the gunners, 
 while the heavy cannon of the fort played incessantly upon the sides and decks of 
 the boats. In the height of the combat Pillow telegraphed to Governor Harris : 
 " The Federal gun-boats are destroying us. For God's sake send us all the help 
 you can immediately. I don't care for the land force of the enemy. They can't 
 hurt us, if you can keep those iron hell-hounds in check." 
 
 Just at the critical moment, when success seemed sure, casualties occurred to 
 several of the armored vessels which disabled them, so that they drifted helplessly 
 down the stream. The remainder were forced to withdraw. Foote, it is said, wept 
 like a child over his disappointment. ,The effort had not, however, been in vain. 
 It aided Grant to capture the stronghold, with its army of fifteen thousand men, and 
 an immense amount of military stores. 
 
 The worst injury to the national cause at Fort Donelson was the wounds 
 inflicted on the heroic Foote. Writing to his wife from Cairo, February i6th, he 
 says : " I was slightly wounded, once at a gun and once in the pilot-house. It was 
 by a piece of spent shot once, and a splinter once, but only slightly, on my left arm 
 and left foot, which puts me on crutches for a few days ; but I will be running 
 about in less than a week." In this representation he unintentionally underrated the 
 magnitude of his own hurts. Enfeebled by exhausting labor and responsibility, he 
 had lost much of his recuperative power, and ultimately lost his life from the effects 
 of his wounds. He had a severe headache in the action, but fought it with cool, 
 unflinching determination. Officers and men reposed unbounded confidence in him, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 303 
 
 and were reminded by him that " not unto us," but to the Great Disposer of events, 
 all glory is due. 
 
 Burning the Tennessee Iron Works, six miles from' Dover, on the 19th of 
 February, the Commodore took possession of Clarksville on the 20th, dictated the 
 conduct to be pursued by the inhabitants, and prepared to carry the Union flag 
 into Nashville and East Tennessee. The latter design w^as left unexecuted, in defer- 
 ence to the positive commands of General Halleck, who thus deprived Foote of the 
 opportunity of winning still grander fame. His old friend, Commodore Smith, 
 sympathized in his chagrin, and strove to console him by stating, among other 
 things, that " Gregory says you pray like a saint and fight like a devil." Further 
 consolation was drawn from the enthusiasm of the citizens of New Haven, who 
 warmly congratulated him on his success, and who presented Mrs. Foote with a 
 flag. 
 
 Success only stimulated the wounded lion to greater exertion and daring. His 
 dispatch to his navy on February 21st closed with the words: "The gun-boats 
 and mortar-boats must leave immediately for Cairo, to be prepared instantly for 
 service. Hasten ! hasten ! ' bear a hand ' to follow me." 
 
 Fort Columbus, called the "Gibraltar of the West" by the rebels, was next 
 reconnoitred by the flotilla, and was soon afterward abandoned as untenable. Foote 
 then expected to clear away all forts and barriers placed by the enemy on the great 
 " Father of Waters." He declared that he intended to descend the Mississippi to 
 its mouth, and made adequate preparations accordingly. He began the work, which 
 was finished by Farragut, aided by Grant, at Vicksburg. Island No. 10 was the first 
 objective point of attack, and toward it Foote's flotilla of seven iron-clad gun-boats and 
 ten mortar-boats moved down the river on the morning of March 14th. On that very 
 day his son, William L., a manly and promising boy of thirteen years, unexpectedly 
 departed this life at his home in New Haven. The bereaved father received the 
 telegram of his son's death in the thick of the battle. The iron entered his soul 
 " May God support us," he telegraphed to his wife in reply. " The shock stuns 
 me in midst of fight. Thy will be done to us and ours." Five days subsequently 
 he and his men received the thanks of Congress and the American people for 
 their gallantry and unwavering devotion to the cause of their country. This doubt- 
 less was grateful to his wounded spirit, which was soothed by balm of praise from 
 a higher source than the National Legislature. No private griefs were allowed to 
 divert his mind from the immediate duty before him. He prepared for assault on 
 Island No. 10 as he had previously done for assault on Forts Henry and Donelson. 
 " When the object of running the blockade becomes adequate to the risk, I shall 
 not hesitate to do it," he wrote to his old friend, the Hon. Gideon Welles, Sec- 
 
304 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 retary of the Navy. It did not become necessary for him to take the risk, for what 
 he did there — aided by the army on land — obliged the enemy to decamp, and the 
 prize dropped into his waiting hand. On the 7th of April, Island No. 10 surren- 
 dered to the gun-boats. The number of prisoners amounted to 7273; of cannon 
 and mortars to 123; besides 7000 small arms, an immense quantity of ammunition, 
 hundreds of horses, mules, and wagons, and four steamers afloat. 
 
 This victory, so pregnant with beneficent results, was a fitting close to the 
 active militant career of Flag-Officer Foote. His wounds grew more dangerous and 
 painful, his sufferings were intense, and rest was urgently demanded. But one minor 
 encounter intervened between that of Island No. 10 and release from active duty. 
 It was that at Fort Pillow on April 14th. "This engagement took place on Sunday 
 morning, and when the hour for reading the service came, the Commodore suggested 
 that the firing should cease, and the crew be mustered for a brief space. He himself 
 read the service ; and, after a short extemporaneous prayer, he set forth in clear 
 and concise terms to the men that duty to one's country often called them to do 
 as they were doing, something entirely opposed to the usual proper manner of 
 observing the sacred day, and the reasons for this. The men listened attentively, 
 as they always did, to his remarks, and then they were piped down to their work 
 at the batteries. Several shells burst over the ship during this remarkable service." 
 Life, p. 295. Fort Pillow fell before Foote resigned command of the flotilla. He 
 was not present. at its fall, for he had left his vessels under the temporary command 
 of Commodore Charles H. Davis, on the 9th of May. 
 
 Leaving the scene of action on the Mississippi, Commodore Foote went at once 
 to the home of his brother, the Hon. John A. Foote, in Cleveland, Ohio. There he 
 was joined by his wife, and there he hoped to enjoy quiet and rest — at the same time 
 exercising a general supervision over the fleet, and receiving the reports of his officers. 
 The citizens of Cleveland delightedly tendered him a public reception and the 
 hospitalities of their city. Secretary Welles was willing to grant him temporary, but 
 not permanent, release from duty. He wished that the shattered hero might recover 
 health and strength, and then resume his command. Commodore Smith his o-ood old 
 friend, on the other hand, bluntly advised him to give up his command entirely, and 
 not " die in harness." Reports of brilliant naval victories, achieved by vessels of his 
 florilla, continuously reached and exhilarated him. But the days of his personal mili- 
 tancy were ended. Yet sick and weak as he was, he wrote much and often, until he 
 had secured positions and commands for his faithful and efficient friends and subordi- 
 nates. His weakness increased apace. Debilitated and emaciated, "he was but a 
 shadow of himself," and was obliged to keep his bed for the greater part of the 
 time. At length, after a surgical examination, he submitted to the decision of the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 305 
 
 Navy Department whether he should resume command of the gun-boats, receive 
 three months leave of absence, or be detached altogether from his command in order 
 that he might try the effects of salt air on his seriously impaired constitution. On the 
 17th of June, the latter alternative was chosen, and Commodore Foote was reheved 
 from command at his own request. 
 
 On the 25th of June he and his wife arrived in New Haven, and were greeted 
 — as they had been all along the route — with every token of public respect. His 
 personal appearance at the time is thus described by his biographer : "His coun- 
 tenance was indeed a fine one ; his forehead was broad and full, and his large, 
 bright black eyes, restless and piercing, took in all things at a glance ; his firm-shut 
 mouth had a grip and strength that showed the invincible will of the man. His 
 stature was of medium size, but square-built and compact. He was always very 
 neatly dressed, carrying his professional notions in this respect to a nicety. He 
 had a sailor-like alertness of step, and his motions were quick and nervous ; yet 
 his address was exceedingly suave and gentle. He gave the impression of a man 
 of active brain and of great energy, though held well in restraint. At one time 
 he had a bobby that he had weak eyes, and he wore large green goggles, giving 
 his naval friends much amusement. He was, in fact, quite apt to ride hobbies ; and 
 these ' charniing foibles,' as one of his friends calls them, rnade him a most fascinat- 
 ing man to all who knew him and loved him." Life, p. 332. 
 
 Those who saw hirp, when he first returned frorp the West, "were struck by 
 the excessive pallor of his face, the unnatural brilliancy of his eyes, and the stern- 
 ness of his expression. It seemed as if he had passed through a fiery ordeal, and 
 had not yet escaped the sense of its tremendous pressure. He had come home with 
 a work unfulfilled. He had come with a prophet's burden on him to arouse the 
 country to greater ej^ertions for its salvation." His mind was preoccupied by this 
 great purpose, and took but little note of public invitations, honors, and ovations ; 
 except as they quickened public sentiment, strengthened love for the National Union, 
 and spurred up to greater sacrifices for the suppression of the Rebellion, and the 
 salvation of the country. 
 
 In July, 1862, on the cordial recommendation of the martyr President Abraham 
 Lincoln, the thanks of both Houses of Congress were tendered to Flag-Officer Foote 
 for his eminent services and gallantry. On the 22d of July he was made chief of 
 the " Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting," but did not repair at once to his post 
 in Washington, hoping to reach better physical condition by good care and nursing. 
 On the 8th of July he presided at one of the great enlistment meetings held in New 
 Haven, and was received, as he entered upon the stage, with prolonged and vocif- 
 erous cheering. At the close of his brief address, he expressed his belief in the 
 
3o6 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO F^ D I A . 
 
 justice of the Union cause, and his firm reliance upon Divine Providence for ulti- 
 mate success. His letters to similar and subsequent meetings were "weighty," full of 
 fire and spirit, and stirred the heart of the country like the blast of a clarion. At 
 the Commencement Day of Yale College, July 30th, he was the cynosure of all eyes. 
 After a speech from the Hon. W. W. Ellsworth on the public exigencies. Professor 
 Thacher quoted the Latin phrase, Ex pede Herculem, which the audience translated 
 by loud cries of " Foote." In his responsive speech he spoke of the advantages of 
 college life, and urged every educated young man to devote himself, at that critical 
 hour, to the service of his country. On the same day he officially received the 
 appointment — dated July 16 — of Rear- Admiral on the Active List. He then stood 
 on the highest pinnacle of his profession, honored and unenvied, because he had 
 climbed thereto by regular steps, filling every subordinate position with laborious dili- 
 gence, sterling worth, and noble patriotic deeds. Congratulatory letters poured in 
 upon him from all quarters. Those from his professional associates and companions 
 in arms were particularly noticeable for their warmth and excellent spirit. 
 
 In the month of May, 1862, he was presented with a valuable sword, which cost 
 $3500, by a number of Brooklyn (N. Y.) gentlemen, in the Athenaeum of that great 
 city. The sword was ornamented with devices having reference to the exploits of the 
 hero in vainous parts of the world. The presence of many distinguished naval officers 
 graced the brilliant assemblage of citizens who had gathered to witness the presenta- 
 tion. His eyes flashed with electric fire as he raised the beautiful weapon, and 
 wielded it, saying : " I will drav^r this sword in defence of the Union and the Con- 
 stitution and the country." The audience caught the spirit of the speaker, and broke 
 forth into fervent demonstrations of applause. 
 
 Public honors were rapidly followed by deep family afflictions. The Admiral's 
 two youngest daughters died within ten days of each other. The first of these was 
 a little bUnd girl whom he regarded with pecuHar tenderness, and for whom he 
 always asked first when he came into the house, saying, " Where is my little Emily ?" 
 The letters of sympathy which came from men overwhelmed with great public cares 
 did equal honor to the recipient and to their own kindness of heart. 
 
 During the close of 1862, and the beginning of 1863, Admiral Foote resided, 
 with his family, in Washington. There he threw himself into the duties of his new 
 office with the same ardor that had characterized his entire official life. It was his 
 habit to carry through his measures at any cost, although his old Connecticut blood 
 prompted him to the utmost practical economy. His interest in all things germane 
 to the public weal never flagged. "He gave advice in regard to the management 
 of naval academies; he was active in his duties as President of the Connecticut 
 Soldiers' Aid Society; he pressed his matters of naval reform, and temperance, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 307 
 
 the better observance of the Lord's Day, with his usual persistency; he found time 
 and heart to write in a playful strain to his few old friends and his relatives who 
 thoroughly knew him ; but his mind was, for the most part, borne down with 
 sorrow and care, though always hopeful for the country." 
 
 The failure of Admiral Dupont to storm the defences of Charleston harbor in 
 1863 evoked a cry from the people, and a demand from the Government, that 
 Andrew Hull Foote should take command of the baffled fleet, and lead it on to 
 victory. The fate of the Republic seemed to depend upon him ; and, notwithstand- 
 ing his physical unfitness, he must go. He accepted the onerous duty, sent his 
 family home to New Haven, and wrote : — " I want as soon as possible to be afloat 
 again, and there remain till we, under God, crush this atrocious rebellion." 
 
 On the 4th of June, 1863, he was detached from his position, and appointed 
 to Admiral Dupont's place as commander of the South Atlantic blockading squad- 
 ron. Captain Simpson, one of his dearest friends, who knew him best, declared that 
 " he would take Fort Sumter or go to the bottom." He was not suffered to make 
 the attempt. Ill beyond recovery, he would sometimes sink into his chair with an 
 air of complete lassitude, and exclaim, with his hands pressed to his head, " Rest — 
 oh, for rest ! " Still, his indomitable spirit held up his failing physical energies. 
 At New York, in gompany with Admiral Gregory, he inspected monitors under 
 process of construction, attended to numerous visitors, and after incessant occupation 
 all day, he started at night for Washiijgton, transacted business in that place all 
 the following day, and returned to New York the same night. This was burning 
 life's decreasing taper at both ends, and also putting a fire into the middle. 
 Harassing excitements and anxieties brought on an aggravation of his disease, which 
 was Bright's disease of the kidneys. He felt that the order to " cast off" moorings " 
 had come to him from the highest authority. " My disease is fatal," he remarked, 
 " but I am prepared to rneet death in this way, if God has so ordered it." His 
 pastor, the Rev. Dr. Budington, wrote: — ''His life, the mainspring of which was a 
 constant activity in the service of God and country, wzs, closing in the energetic 
 performance of his last conjrqission — to die." He died as he lived — manfully, affec- 
 tionately, happily. " God is dealing gently with me," he said. " He may bring dark 
 hours, but thus far it grows brighter and brighter with me." He died on Friday 
 night, June 26th, 1863, at the comparatively early age of fifty:six. Toil, anxiety, and 
 care were ended. The God of peace, as well as the God of battles, had given his 
 beloved sleep. 
 
 Admiral Foote's death was ^ shock to the nation. All felt that it was the 
 death of the greatest man who had yet fallen. Elaborate eulogies of the deceased 
 filled the columns of the newspaper press, the flags of all naval vessels were hoisted 
 
3o8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 at half-mast, and thirteen guns were fired at meridian of the day following the 
 receipt of the general order of Secretary Welles that announced his death. The 
 universal grief was akin to that exhibited when the electric wire flashed far and 
 wide throughout the land the tidings of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The 
 highest professional honors were paid to his memory at the funeral, and the 
 American nation mourned the loss of one of its greatest sons. Among them all, 
 none surpassed in moral force, in immutable resolution to pursue the right, in 
 invincible loyalty to Christ and country — the lamented Admiral. 
 
 He was an orthodox Christian in faith, in word, in deed. After the capture 
 of Fort Henry he wrote to his wife that " he had agonized in prayer for victory." 
 Pious, philanthropic, and inexorably moral, he was also open, cordial, and confiding. 
 Social in temperament, he was usually full of hilarious life. He loved praise and 
 distinction, commanded the implicit respect and obedience of his men, felt and 
 exemplified the keenest interest in their welfare, was a true patriot, and a typical 
 American sailor. Duty was the grandest and most meaningful word in the vocabu- 
 lary to him, and to few, if any, public servants has the American people ever 
 said "well done" with greater propriety and justice than to Connecticut's heroic 
 sailor son and hero, Andrew Hull Foote. 
 
 »OWARD, CHAUNCEY, of Coventry, Comptroller of the State of Connecti- 
 cut. Born in Coventry, April 21st, 1812. His father John Howard, was 
 a physician in the same town, as was also his grandfather, Nathan Howard, 
 who removed thither from Hampton, Conn. He is connected through his 
 paternal grandmother, Joanna, with one of the most heroic names associated with 
 the history of the American Revolution. She was the sister of Lieutenant Nathan 
 Hale, "the martyr spy," who was executed at the City of New York, in the 
 memorable year, 1776; and who died regretting that he had "but one life to lose 
 in the service of his country." 
 
 After appropriating all that the educational institutions of his native town were 
 able to supply, Chauncey Howard matriculated at Amherst College in 1830. Among 
 his classmates were Henry Ward Beecher, and several others who have since risen 
 to conspicuity and influence in different walks of life. He did not graduate with 
 
f<^%w 
 
 -y^<^i^^¥M. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 309 
 
 them, but with the class of 1835, for the reason that he had spent one year of 
 the four employed by them in collegiate studies, in teaching. 
 
 Provided with his diploma, and with the practical knowledge won by educa- 
 tional labor, he next decided to adopt the profession of law, and qualified himself 
 for its practice by diligent and comprehensive studies in the office of the late 
 Judge William W. Ellsworth. Admitted to the Bar in 1839, he prosecuted the 
 ordinary duties of a legal practitioner until 1841, when he was chosen Clerk of 
 the Superior Court : — a position which he held uninterruptedly for nearly twenty- 
 five years, and from which he voluntarily retired in 1873. His services in that 
 responsible post gave universal satisfaction, and were rewarded by the grateful praise 
 of all who had been thrown into contact with him. 
 
 s 
 
 After his retirement, Mr. Howard returned to his native town, in which he 
 designed to spend the residue of his years. But, as will appear, the citizens of 
 the State determined differently, by electing him to the important office that he 
 now fills. While Clerk of the Superior Court, he was called at intervals to other 
 positions of trust and honor. In 1847, he was sent as Representative from Hart- 
 ford to the lower branch of the State Legislature; and in 1875 was elected to 
 the State Senate from the Twenty-first District. In 1877 he served a second term in 
 the House, to which he had been elected by the Republicans of Coventry. At 
 another period, Mr. Howard rendered excellent service in the relation of treasurer 
 to the town and city of Hartford. Legal, legislative, and fiscal experiences have 
 been diversified by occasional journalistic and literary labor. Soon after the estab- 
 lishment of the Hartford Daily Courant, he was editorially connected with that 
 paper for some time. 
 
 In 1879 Mr. Howard assumed the duties of Comptroller of Public Accounts, 
 having been elected thereto on the Republican ticket. Unsolicited and unexpected, 
 the nomination for his onerous and responsible office sought his acceptance, because 
 those who made the nomination judged him to be the fittest man to occupy the 
 place. Nor has their judgment been impeached by the results. The intelligence, 
 fidelity, and dignity with which the incumbent has fulfilled his duties for more than 
 a year, justify the instinctive and reasonable choice of his constituents. They are 
 the simple characteristics which have distinguished his long and useful public life. 
 As comptroller, his duties have been largely increased by the occupation of the new 
 Capitol, of which he is the custodian, and by the improvement of the Capitol 
 grounds, which proceeds under his supervision. 
 
310 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 'ILES, FREDERICK, of Chapinville, Conn., was born at Goshen, Litchfield 
 County, Conn., December 19th, 18 15. His father, Augustus Miles, was a 
 native of the same county, and represented the town of Goshen in the 
 Legislature for several years, both in the House and Senate. The subject, 
 after receiving an academical education, engaged in mercantile pursuits in Goshen 
 until 1857, when he removed to Chapinville, in Salisbury, and engaged in the 
 manufacture of iron, which he has carried on up to the present time. In November, 
 1877, Mr. Miles was elected to the State Senate for a term of two years, but 
 resigned in February, 1879, having been elected to the Forty-sixth Congress on the 
 Republican ticket, receiving 14,109 votes, against 12,930 votes for F. W. BruggerhoflF. 
 This was the first time this Congressional district had been carried by any Re- 
 publican. In 1880, Mr. Miles was re-elected to the same office, his competitor being 
 Geo. W. Peet, of Canaan. 
 
 ,^1-UTLER, JOHN S., M.D., of Hartford. Born in Northampton, Mass., 
 "illw* October 12, 1803. His father, Daniel Butler, was a merchant there, and a 
 native of Hartford, Connecticut. His mother, whose maiden name was 
 o Ehzabeth Simpkins, was a native of Boston. His preparatory education was 
 received in the Hawley Grammer School, at Northampton, and in the Hadley 
 Academy, at Hadley, Mass. In 1821 he matriculated at Yale College, and graduated 
 therefrom with the class of 1825. Preferring to identify himself with the medical 
 fraternity, he began his studies for future professional life in the office of Drs. Hunt 
 and Barrett at Northampton. In 1826 he attended the course of lectures in the 
 Harvard Medical College, Boston, and afterward repaired to the Jefferson Medical 
 College in Philadelphia, passed through the regular courses of instruction, received 
 his diploma in the autumn of 1828, and spent the year following in the same city, 
 as a resident graduate. 
 
 In May, 1829, Dr. Butler settled in Worcester, Mass., and assiduously devoted 
 himself to professional practice in that town for the ensuing ten years. During 
 that period he was a frequent visitor to the Worcester Lunatic Asylum, which was 
 then under the care of the celebrated Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, and thus became 
 particularly interested in Mental Pathology. Insanity— its nature, its causes, and its 
 
Yi:.(i'iV'li'ciTifLiJ]Ii ■.iLOii: ■■< iiij;'iivinf: in >!i:"w"i"ni]-: 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C YCL O FyE D I A . 3(1 
 
 cure — was made a subjeet of thorough and exhaustive study. In the advanced ideas 
 of Dr. Woodward, as to the best methods of treating the malady, he fully and 
 intelligently sympathized. 
 
 In 1839 Dr. Butler was chosen superintendent of the Boston Lunatic Hospital, 
 and also physician and surgeon to the Public Institutions of South Boston, and 
 discharged the duties of those offices until the fall of 1842. The great success 
 which crowned his labors, and the efficacy of his peculiar methods of treatment, are 
 forcibly described in an article on Insanity in Massachusetts, published in the 
 North American Review, of January, 1843. The writer says: "We select for 
 description the Lunatic Hospital, at South Boston, as we know it under the excel- 
 lent management of Dr. Butler, because its patients are wholly of the pauper class. 
 The building is a commodious and pleasant one, constructed expressly for the 
 purpose, with all the modern improvements, and pleasantly situated on the seashore, 
 with a garden in front. Its inmates are of the worst and most helpless class of 
 cases. They were the raving madmen, and the gibbering idiots, whom — in the 
 language of the Inspectors of Prisons for Suffolk County — we had formerly seen 
 " tearing their clothes amid severe cold, lacerating their bodies, contracting most 
 filthy habits, without self-control, unable to restrain the worst feelings, endeavoring 
 to injure those who approach them, giving vent to their irritation in the most 
 passionate, profane, and filthy language, fearing and feared, hating and almost hated." 
 Now they are neatly clad by day, and comfortably lodged in separate rooms by 
 night. They walk quietly, and with self-respect, about the spacious and airy walks, 
 or sit in listening groups around the daily papers ; or they dig in the garden, or 
 handle edge-tools, or stroll about the neighborhood with kind and careful' attendants. 
 They attend soberly and reverently upon religious exercises, and make glad music 
 with their united voices." This marvellous external transformation was in strict corre- 
 spondence with the internal changes effected by the humane and scientific processes 
 
 of Dr. Butler. 
 
 In May, 1843, he was invited to assume the superintendency, and to discharge 
 the duties of Physician in charge, of the Cott7iecticut Retreat for the Insane. The 
 invitation was accepted, and, for thirty years thereafter. Dr. Butler toiled to accom- 
 plish the objects for which the institution was established, with a zeal, wisdom, and 
 success that left but little to be desired, and that are deserving of the warm and 
 discriminating praise bestowed by all observers. In 186 1-2 sundry needed improve- 
 ments were recommended by, and carried out under the supervision of. Dr. Butler. 
 The beautiful plan presented to the Committee by Olmstead and Vaux of New 
 York was adopted, drives and walks were constructed, trees arranged in groups, 
 the grounds sown with lawn grass, and the whole property thoroughly underdrained. 
 
312 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. ^ 
 
 A tasteful and elegant museum was erected, its sides ornamented with a choice collec- 
 tion of engravings, and an excellent billiard table, presented by A. S. Beckwith, placed 
 in the centre of the room. It presented a very cheerful and pleasant appearance, and 
 naturally became both popular and useful. Musical instruments, books, pictures, and 
 other materials for meliorating the condition of the unfortunate inmates, were also 
 wisely and plentifully provided, and exerted most favorable influence upon the whole. 
 Like the spacious and highly ornamental park donated to the citizens of Halifax, 
 England, by that prince of manufacturers, Frank Crossley, and which contains a 
 pavilion on whose portico is inscribed the appropriate motto : " The rich and poor 
 meet together, for the Lord is the maker of them all ;" so there, in the Retreat for 
 the Insane, all the appliances and conveniences provided by the beneficence of 
 charitable donors are open, to quote the words of Dr. Butler, " to every one of our 
 large family capable of receiving comfort and benefit from their use." There, too, 
 may " the rich and poor meet together ;" their common humanity is proved by 
 their community of suffering, and the broad folds of Christian charity which embraces 
 them all." The aim of Dr. Butler was tersely expressed by his own words to the 
 architect who reconstructed the building. It was to " kill out the Lunatic Asylum, 
 and develop a Home" — an aim which has been emphatically and mercifully accom- 
 plished. 
 
 On the 19th of October, 1872, he presented his resignation as superintendent, 
 to the Directors, >vho, on accepting it, voted, " That in accepting Dr. Butler's resig- 
 nation we recognize his long and faithful services to the institution, and his successful 
 endeavors to promote its highest and best interests. We see as the result of these 
 thirty of the best years of his life, the dreary, cold, dark, and forbidding walls of the 
 narrow passage-ways and comfortless rooms and dormitories of 1843, converted into 
 an institution well-nigh perfect in all its appointments ; the spacious halls and par- 
 lors ornamented and made attractive with paintings, engravings, and other works of 
 art ; the whole structure from foundation to ceiling reconstructed and rebuilt, placing 
 the Retreat among the most homelike and cheerful residences of the kind any- 
 where to be found ; libraries of books and the periodicals of the day upon the tables 
 and in every hall; the ground and lawn, through his agency, converted from an 
 open field to one of the most beautiful of parks. These are among the noble 
 monuments which he has reared and left, giving beauty, comfort, and cheerfulness 
 to the Retreat and its surroundings, and which have and will continue to shed joy 
 and sunshine into many a patient's sad heart, and are admired and appreciated as 
 his work. Yet the most gratifying and glorious result of these years of toil and 
 care is in the restoration of patients scattered up and down through the whole land, 
 whose grateful remembrances he enjoys, and whose blessings will follow him to the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YCLOPW D I A. 313 
 
 end of his days. The Board rejoices with him in his life-work, and tenders to him 
 their most cordial well-wishes for his future happiness and prolonged usefulness among 
 them, and their earnest hope that the institution with which he has been so long 
 identified may still continue to enjoy the benefit of his experience and counsel." 
 
 This resolution is worthy of insertion in this brief record of Dr. Butler's career, 
 as being in itself a succinct and complete biography of his professional life in con- 
 nection with the Retreat, and also as an exhibit of the relations established between 
 himself and people of other classes by his strenuous and successful efforts to promote 
 the recovery of the sorrowfully afflicted. 
 
 Since his retirement from the superintendency of the Retreat, Dr. Butler's ser- 
 vices have been frequently called into requisition as consulting physician in diseases of 
 the brain and nervous system, fie was one of the thirteen Superintendents of Ameri- 
 can Lunatic Asylums who organized the Association of Superintendents of American 
 Lunatic Asylums in 1844, and from 1870 to 1873 was the president of that body. In 
 1878 he was appointed one of the members of the State Board of Health by Gov- 
 ernor Hubbard, and was made its president. His first annual address to the Board, on 
 the subject of State Preventive Medicine, has received warm commendations from 
 the medical profession both at home and abroad. It has been published in pam- 
 phlet form and widely circulated. State Preventive Medicine is the now generally 
 accepted term for what has been known as the science of public health, or hygiene ; — 
 " an application of the laws of philosophy and general pathology to the maintenance of 
 the health and life of communities by means of those agencies which are in common 
 and constant use." After sketching the rise and progress of the science, Dr. Butler 
 answers the question : — " What are the specific duties it prescribes 1 What loss has 
 been sustained by^ their neglect ? What has it already done ? What more does it 
 propose to do.? And what are its reasonable possibilities in the future.?" In his 
 replies he ably presents the claims of the science to popular confidence and sup- 
 port, not alone by his own observation and experience, but by the reliable evidence 
 of the highest authorities as to what it has done, what it can do, and what the 
 highest public good demands. In support of his argument he has made free use 
 of Reports, foreign and domestic, and of other valuable documentary evidence, not 
 generally accessible. Dr. Butler's professional standing is of the highest in his own 
 country. In other lands he is well-known, and is an honorary member of the 
 Medico-P sych ological Association of Great Britain. 
 
 In 1832, he was married to Cordelia, daughter of Eliphalet Williams, of Boston. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 ALLUP, DAVID, of Plainfield, Conn. Ex-Lieutenant Governor of Connec- 
 ticut. Born in Sterling, July nth, 1808. His first American ancestor 
 was Captain John Gallup, who immigrated to this country from England 
 @^ in 1630, and settled in Boston. Captain Gallup, besides being an enter- 
 prising fisher and trader, was a genuine Norse viking in respect of courage and 
 daring. His is the singular honor of having fought the first naval battle on the 
 coast of New England — at least within authentic historical times. When sailing 
 near Block Island in his vessel. Ye Buck, with his two sons, he discovered that the 
 vessel of his friend, Captain John Oldham, was in possession of a swarm of Indians 
 who had murdered the master. Captain Gallup instantly bore down upon the ma- 
 rauding redskins with such avenging fury that the greater part of them leaped into 
 the sea, and the captured craft became the prize of the valorous mariner, who, how- 
 ever, was obliged to abandon her in a storm that came up. 
 
 One of Captain Gallup's sons, and probably one of the twain who took part in 
 the reprisal on the Indians, subsequently distinguished himself in the wars with the 
 aborigines. In the Pequot war he bore himself so bravely, as a member of the 
 Massachusetts forces, that the General Court of Connecticut voted him a grant of 
 100 acres - of land in 1671. He first settled at New London in 1651, but removed 
 to Stonington in 1655, and engaged in farming. When the war with King Philip 
 broke out he was an oW man, but his military spirit was unimpaired, and he took 
 the field at the head of the Mohegans. In storming the famous fort in the 
 Rhode Island swamp, he was pierced by many bullets, and fell in the forefront 
 of his command. His son Benadam was one of a party of volunteers who went 
 out of Boston in 1689 to capture a pirate sloop that had been plundering the coast. 
 The attempt was successful, the pirate Captain was slain, Gallup took command, 
 and brought the remainder of the miscreants into port. 
 
 Five men, named John Gallup, followed each other in line of direct descent. 
 A brother of the third John Gallup was named Nathaniel, and his son John 
 became the grandfather of Lieutenant Governor Gallup, and married a lineal de- 
 scendant of Captain John Alden, whose courtship of Priscilla Mullens is celebrated 
 in one of Longfellow's most exquisite poems. Governor Gallup's mother, nee Nancy 
 Jaques, was born in Rhode Island. On both sides the house, and particularly on 
 the paternal, he is connected with some of the oldest and most respectable families 
 in Eastern Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. 
 
 In early life Mr. Gallup settled as a farmer at Plainfield, but his natural apti- 
 tude for affairs and his public spirit soon brought him under general notice, and 
 occasioned his fellow citizens to demand his services in various public departments. 
 For twenty-three years he was Judge of Probate in the Plainfield district, and filled 
 
p 
 
 I a 7' / a 
 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 315 
 
 successively almost every local office in the town. In 1841 he was chosen as its 
 representative to the General Assembly, and also served in that capacity in 1850. 
 In 1862 he was again elected to the lower house of the Connecticut Legislature, 
 and served for five successive terms. In 1866 he was honored by election to the 
 Speakership of the House. During his legislative service he frequently officiated as 
 Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and also of the Committee on Railroads. In 
 1869 he was elected to the State Senate, frorri the thirteenth district, and served 
 as President, pro tempore, of the Senate. Upon the adjournment of that body in 
 the same year, Francis Wayland, the Lieutenant-Governor of the State, went to 
 Europe, and Judge Gallup discharged the duties of that functionary for the remain- 
 der of his term. In 1877 he again represented Plainfield in the House, for the 
 eighth time. 
 
 Governor Gallup has been long and honorably identified with banking, and 
 other financial business. For many years he was a director, and for two years the 
 President, of the Quinnebaug Bank of Norwich, which became a national bank in 
 1863. It enjoys the distinction of being the first bank in eastern Connecticut that 
 adopted the national bank system. For more than twenty years he has been a 
 director of the Norwich Saving Society, still holds his seat at the board, and is one 
 of the vice-presidents of the institution. Of the Hartford Trust Company — the first 
 Safety Deposit company organized in Connecticut — he is one of the directors and 
 originators, and indeed the prime mover. He was also one of the organizers of the 
 Orient Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, and has been a member of its board 
 of direction, and also of its finance committee from the date of its establishment. 
 His large business interests oblige him to spend much of his time at the capital. 
 He was instrumental in the removal of the Gatling Gun Company's works from In- 
 dianapolis to Hartford, and is vice-president of that celebrated corporation at the pres- 
 ent time. In Cincinnati, as well as in Hartford, he possesses large real estate interests. 
 
 Long and actively identified with the finances of the State, and receiving the 
 entire confidence of the commonwealth in his fiscal integrity and ability, always an 
 unswerving Whig and RepubHcan, and frequently prominent in the nominating con- 
 ventions of his party, the choice of his name for the second office in the State 
 was but a partial recognition of his worth as a citizen, and of his value as a 
 statesman. In 1878 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, which he continued to fill 
 until the ist of January, 1881. 
 
 Governor Gallup was married in 1835 to JuHa Ann Woodward, of Plainfield, 
 Conn. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 jJ|LATT, GIDEON LUCIAN, M.D., of Waterbury, Conn. Born in Middle- 
 "1^^ bury, Conn., July 20th, 1813. His father and grandfather both bore the 
 given name of Gideon, and both were farmers by occupation, and natives 
 of Milford, Conn. His mother, nee Lydia Sperry, was the daughter of 
 Jacob Sperry of Waterbury, who also was a yeoman of the old Puritan stock. 
 
 The primary education of Dr. Piatt was received in the public and private 
 schools of Middlebury ; his academical education in the Academy at Farmington, 
 and his professional education, first in the office of Dr. Henry Bronson — who then 
 lived in Waterbury — and subsequently in the School of Medicine connected with 
 Yale College. His preparatory medical studies commenced in 1834, and closed 
 with his graduation as M.D. in March, 1838. His old preceptor. Dr. Bronson, 
 afterward held the post of Professor of Materia Medica in the Yale Medical School. 
 Beginning the practice of medicine in Waterbury immediately after his graduation, 
 in professional association with Dr. Bronson, he continued in that relation for a 
 short period, and subsequently associated himself for about three years with Dr. G. 
 P. Rockwell. Then, preferring an independent career, he entered upon professional 
 duties on individual account, and has since prosecuted them, in the twofold capacity 
 of physician and surgeon, with distinguished ability and success. With the State 
 Medical Society he has been connected in membership for many years, and now 
 holds the post of president of that body. 
 
 Dr. Piatt was married on the i8th of December, 1844, to Caroline, daughter 
 of William F. Tudor, of Connecticut — a gentleman whose patronymic and genea- 
 logical register indicate consanguinity with one of the royal houses of England. 
 His first American ancestor came from Wales to the New World in company with 
 the Puritans ; and, after a brief residence in Massachusetts, removed to Windsor, 
 Conn., about the year 1636. There he lived in that part of the town known as 
 " The Island." His two sons, Samuel and Owen, changed their residence to East 
 Windsor, on the other bank of the Connecticut River, about 1680, and occupied the 
 place w^here Dr. Elihu Tudor subsequently lived. Owen died unmarried, but Samuel 
 married the Widow Bissell — whose maiden name is supposed to have been Tilley — 
 by whom he had six children, of whom Samuel, the youngest, became an eminent 
 minister of the Gospel. He graduated at Yale College in 1728, was the second 
 minister of Poquonnock, Windsor, and was much respected for his intelligence, 
 application to business, and dignity of manners. His wife was Mar)'-, daughter of 
 the Rev. Joseph Smith, first minister of . Middletown. By her he had ten children, 
 of whom Elihu, the second, was born February 22d, 1733, and died March 6th 
 1826, at the age of ninety-three. 
 
 Elihu Tudor graduated at Yale College in 1750, studied medicine with Dr. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 317 
 
 Gale of New Haven, joined the army at the outbreak of hostilities between Great 
 Britain and France, and served therein throughout the war. After the peace of 1763, 
 he retained his military position, and improved the opportunities it afforded by study 
 and practice in the hospitals of London, England. Subsequently, he was discharged at 
 his own request, made a half-pay officer, and returned to his native town after an 
 absence of ten years, during which he had received no tidings from his family. He 
 took an active part in the establishment of the Medical Society of Connecticut, of 
 which he was elected vice-president. In 1790 he received the degree of M.D., in a 
 manner highly honorable to himself, from Dartmouth College. He married Lucretia, 
 daughter of Elisha Brewster of Middletown — a lineal descendant of Elder William 
 Brewster, the first minister of Plymouth, Mass. He died March 6th, 1826. Dr. Tudor 
 was the father of eleven children, of whom WiUiam Franklin Tudor, the father of Mrs. 
 Dr. Piatt, was the seventh. W. F. "Tudor was born February 26th, 1782, and died- 
 June 20th, 1857. 
 
 The issue of Dr. Piatt's marriage with Miss Caroline Tudor survives in the persons 
 of four children— three sons and one daughter. With such an ancestry, it was only 
 natural that two of the sons should adopt the paternal profession. One of them, 
 L. Tudor Piatt, M.D., is settled in Bristol, Conn. ; the other, Walter Brewster Piatt, 
 M.D., is senior house surgeon in the Boston City Hospital. Dr. W. B. Piatt has 
 added to the medical qualifications obtained by study and practice at home, those 
 derived from sixteen months' residence in Berlin, Vienna, Heidelberg, and London, 
 in Europe. While in attendance at the University of Berlin, he was enrolled 
 among the private pupils of Professor Von Langenbeck — one of the most celebrated 
 professors in Germany. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 YON, NATHANIEL, Brigadier-General United States Volunteers. Born 
 at Ashford, Windham County, Conn., July 14th, 1819. On July ist, 1837, he 
 entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as a cadet, and 
 graduated from thence on July ist, 1841, when he was promoted in the army 
 to the grade of second-lieutenant in the Second Infantry. 
 
 In 1841-2 he served in his first campaign against the hostile Indians in Florida. 
 Four years' of garrison life followed at Sackett's Harbor and Fort Columbus, N. Y. 
 From the latter post he was called to Mexico at the outbreak of war with that 
 country, and was commissioned first-lieutenant of the Second Infantry, February i6th, 
 1847. Ii^ March 9th to 29th, 1847, he bore part in the siege of Vera Cruz; on 
 April I7th-i8th, at the battle of Cerro Gordo; on August i6th, in the skirmish of 
 Oka Laka ; on the 19th and 20th of August, in the battle of Contreras ; and again on 
 the 20th in the battle of Churubusco. For gallant and meritorious conduct in the lat- 
 ter engagements, he received the brevet of Captain. At Mohno del Rey, September 
 8th, 1847, and in the assault and capture of the City of Mexico, September 13th and 
 14th, 1847, he again distinguished himself, and was wounded in the final attack on 
 the Belen Gate 
 
 When the war closed he returned to New York, and performed garrison duty at 
 Fort Hamilton in 1848. From thence he sailed to California in 1848, and was on 
 frontier duty at San Diego, Benicia, and Camp Stanislaus successively in 1849; ^^ 
 Monterey, and in an expedition to Clear Lake and Russian River — in which he was 
 engaged in two skirmishes with hostile Indians — in 1850. On the nth of June, 
 1 85 1, he was commissioned as captain of the Second Infantry; and in 1853 took 
 part in the Rogue River expedition. After that he i-eturned to New York, and in 
 1S54 and '5 served on frontier duty, during the political troubles in Kansas. In 
 1855 he took part in the Sioux expedition, and subsequently served on the frontier 
 until February 7th, 1861, when he was placed in command of the forces for the 
 defence of the St. Louis Arsenal. The times were pregnant with future troubles. 
 The position was critical. Very much depended on the turn affairs might take in the 
 metropolis of Missouri. But the gallant and godly son of a stern' old Puritan 
 ancestry proved himself to be fully equal to the emergency. Lyon promptly made 
 arrangements for the protection and defence of that post, with its garrison of several 
 hundred regular soldiers, stores of arms, and munitions of war. On the night of the 
 25th of April, the great bulk of these were quietly but rapidly transferred to a 
 steamboat, and transported to Alton, 111. Thence the principal portion of them was 
 conveyed to Springfield, the capital of that State, thus foiling the Secessionists, who 
 had organized a " State Guard" in the neighborhood, and who for several days had 
 been hopefully awaiting the right moment in order to capture those very arms. On 
 
^^-^l^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 319 
 
 the morning of May loth, Captain Lyon and Colonel Frank P. Blair suddenly sur- 
 rounded the State Guard at Camp Jackson, and demanded their surrender. The 
 demand was enforced by the presence of six thousand Unionists and an effective 
 battery, and only half an hour was afforded for compliance. It was quite enoug-h, 
 for General D. M. Frost, who was in charge of the camp, was completely surprised, 
 and had no other alternative. Twenty cannon, twelve hundred new rifles, several 
 chests of muskets, large quantities of ammunition, etc., which had recently been 
 received from the Baton Rouge Arsenal — then in Confederate hands — were among 
 the spoils of victory. 
 
 This blow at secession was a severe and timely one. If it intensified the rage 
 and hate of the disloyal, it also strengthened the courage and fidelity of the loyal. 
 Captain Lyon's course received' cordial approval, and he was commissioned as 
 Brigadier-General of the First Brigade of Missouri Volunteers. About the same 
 time, under orders from the National Government, he superseded General William 
 S. Harney in command of the department. On the nth of June an interview took 
 place at St. Louis between the Secessionist General Price, on the part of the Gov- 
 ernor of Missouri, and General Lyon and Colonel Blair on behalf of the Union, 
 whereat Price demanded, as an essential condition of peace, that no Federal troops 
 should be stationed in the State, or allowed to pass through it. General Lyon 
 peremptorily refused compliance with the preposterous demand. Jackson and Price 
 returned that night to Jefferson City, sanctioned acts of war upon the National 
 Government, and fully committed themselves to the cause of the Rebellion by the 
 issuance of a proclamation from the former as Governor, calling out 50,000 State 
 militia " to repel Federal invasion." The traitorous document advised the citizens that 
 while it was their " duty to obey all constitutional requirements of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment" — "your first allegiance is due to your own State " — and therefore they were 
 under no obligations to obey the Government at Washington, or " submit to the 
 infamous and degrading sway of its wicked ministers" in that State. 
 
 The Governor and his accessories were already tasting the bitterness of defeat, 
 and notwithstanding the fact that Missouri had authoritatively and overwhelmingly 
 refused to leave the Union, were defiantly bent on casting in their lot with the fortunes 
 of the Great Rebellion. The State School Fund, the money provided to pay the inter- 
 est on the heavy State debt, and all other available means, were used in prosecution 
 of their treasonable designs. Despotic powers were usurped by Governor Jackson, 
 and ex-Governor SterHng Price was appointed Major-General of the State forces. 
 The Secessionists gathered in the heart of the slave-holding region, and were fol- 
 lowed thither by General Lyon and his army on the 13th of June. Jefferson City 
 was reached on the morning of the 15th. Re-embarking on the i6th, he reached 
 
320 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Rockport, nearly opposite Booneville, on the following morning, and espied the 
 rebel encampment just across the river. It contained some two or three thousand 
 half-armed men, under Colonel Marmaduke. Jackson, disconcerted by Lyon's rapid 
 and soldierly movements, had ordered his " State Guard " to be disbanded, and that 
 no resistance should be offered. But Marmaduke determined on fighting, and started 
 for the landing, where he hoped to surprise and cut up the debarking Unionists. 
 But again Lyon had been too quick for his adversaries. He advanced in good order, 
 easily routed Marmaduke, captured two guns, with much camp-equipage, clothing, etc., 
 dispersed his infantry, and drove his cavalry into celeritous flight. 
 
 Lyon pursued the retreating rebels into Jasper County. In the affair at Car- 
 thage on the next day, they suffered considerably at the hands of General Franz 
 Sigel, who, though compelled to retreat on Springfield, carried off the palm of vic- 
 tory. At Springfield, General Lyon, who had been delayed by lack of transportation, 
 joined and outranked the victorious Sigel. 
 
 The rebels, largely reinforced from the South, and possessing numerous and 
 effective cavalry, soon overran all southern Missouri, and confined Lyon to Spring- 
 field and its immediate vicinity. He needed reinforcements; but the disastrous 
 rout at Bull Run, and the expiry of the three months' period of enlistment, pre- 
 cluded the hope of receiving any. Hearing that the enemy was advancing in two 
 strong columns, from Cassville on the south, and Sarcoxie on the west, to over- 
 whelm him, he resolved to strike the former before it could unite with the latter. 
 Leaving Springfield on the ist of August, with 5500 foot, 400 horse, and 18 guns, 
 he encountered a detachment of the enemy at Dug Springs the next morning, and 
 put them to speedy rout. The rebels then recoiled, and, under McCulloch, effected 
 a junction with the weaker column advancing from Sarcoxie to strike Springfield 
 from the west. Lyon retraced his steps to Springfield, to which the rebels, now 
 commanded by Price, their best general, advanced slowly and warily, reaching Wil- 
 son's Creek, ten miles south of Springfield, on the 7th. There Lyon purposed to 
 surprise them in a night attack, but was obliged to defer his attempt until the 9th, 
 when he again advanced from Springfield. His force was divided into two columns, 
 of which he led the principal one, seeking the enemy in front ; while Sigel, with 
 1200 men, was to gain their rear by their right. At 5 a.m., on August loth, Lyon 
 opened upon the rebels in front, while Sigel assailed the rear of their right. The 
 battle was obstinate and bloody. The division of the national forces proved to be 
 a mistake, in view of the superior numbers of the foe. The Union infantry was 
 overwhelmed by the rebel cavalry, and of Sigel's 1200 men less than 400 were 
 present at the next roll call. Not all were slain or wounded, for one regiment of 
 400 men, whose term of enlistment had expired, fled in all directions. The main 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 321 
 
 body, under General Lyon, repeatedly drove the rebels back in confusion; but shame 
 would not allow them to confess defeat by a force numerically far inferior to their 
 own. He manifested the most reckless bravery throughout, was twice wounded, and 
 had his horse killed under him. When the second ball struck him on the head, he 
 seemed for the moment to be confused. Walking a few paces to the rear, he 
 remarked to his Adjutant, Major Schofield, " I fear the day is lost." Schofield re- 
 sponded : " No, General, let us try them once more." Lyon then mounted Major 
 Sturgis's horse, and, bleeding from his two wounds, swung his hat in the air, and 
 called upon the troops nearest to him to prepare for a bayonet charge on the lines 
 of the enemy. The Second Kansas rallied to his call, and when their brave colonel, 
 Mitchell, fell, severely wounded, cried out : " We are ready to follow — who will lead 
 us ?" " I will lead you," replied the ^heroic Lyon ; " come on, brave men !" But just 
 at that juncture a third bullet struck him on the breast, and he fell mortally wounded. 
 Still the battle was not lost. The indomitable spirit of the gallant leader transfused 
 itself throughout the entire host. The enemy was driven precipitately from the 
 field. Major Schofield stated that "it was a perfect rout — that the enemy fled in the 
 wildest confusion." Lyon, like Wolfe, died in the arms of victory. His death was 
 a national calamity. The rebels both hated and admired him. Pollard, in his South 
 em History, says : 
 
 "The death of General Lyon was a serious loss to the Federals in Missouri. 
 He was an able and dangerous man — a man of the times, who appreciated the 
 force of audacity and quick decision in a revolutionary war. To military education 
 and talents, he united a rare energy and promptitude. No doubts or scruples un- 
 settled his mind. A Connecticut Yankee, without a trace of chivalric feeling or 
 personal sensibility — one of those who submit to insult with indifference, yet are 
 brave on the field — he was this exception to the politics of the late regular army 
 of the United States, that he was an unmitigated, undisguised, and fanatical Abo- 
 litionist." 
 
 This was really, though unintentionally, the highest praise that the rancorous 
 Southern historian could bestow. It proves that General Lyon thoroughly under- 
 stood the condition of national affairs, that he stood with the God of the oppressed 
 and down trodden in the struggle, and that he clearly discerned that the path to 
 the ultimate triumph of the Union arms, and the beneficent consolidation of the 
 American Republic, lay through the righteous emancipation of the four million slaves 
 then held in hopeless thrall and chattelhood. 
 
 The death of General Lyon produced a profound and painful sensation through- 
 out the entire country. " His remains were received with military honors in all the 
 
 principal cities through which they passed en route to Connecticut, where they were 
 21 
 
322 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 interred with great military and civic honors. By will he left almost his entire 
 property to the Government to aid in preserving the Union. Congress gratefully 
 passed the following resolution about the same time: "That it • seems just and 
 proper to enter upon its records a recognition of the eminent and patriotic services 
 of the late Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon. The country to whose services he 
 devoted his life will guard and preserve his fame as a part of its own glory." 
 
 " A series of able letters written by him during and subsequent to the Kansas 
 troubles were published in 1862, entitled The Last Political Writings of General 
 Nathaniel Lyonl' — Johnsons Encyclopcedia. 
 
 |AMP, HIRAM, of New Haven, President of the New Haven Clock Com- 
 pany. Born April 9th, 181 1, at Plymouth, Conn. His father, Samuel Camp, 
 and his grandfather, who bore the same name, were substantial New 
 England yeomen, and of the stalwart, unconquerable. Puritanic stock, to which 
 the country and the world are so largely indebted. Samuel Camp, Sr., was a soldier 
 in the Revolutionary war, was well acquainted with General Washington and the 
 Marquis de La Fayette, and rendered efficient service to the cause of his country at 
 Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Staten Island. Four of his brothers, namely, John, 
 Bennajah, Joab, and Ephraim, also served in the patriot armies. John Camp became 
 a Congregationalist minister, and Samuel Camp a deacon in the same order of the 
 Christian Church. The latter settled in Plymouth, and in old age was maintained 
 by his son, Samuel Camp., Jr., the father of Hiram Camp, who also supported his 
 wife's parents. The pressure of onerous responsibility thus resting on the shoulders of 
 the younger Samuel, made it very necessary that all the members of his family should 
 aid in sustaining it. The farm was poor, and the soil rocky. The good old deacon 
 when past the season of effective agricultural labor, employed his declining energies 
 most usefully, by visiting every family in the town, at least ©nee in the course of 
 each year, in order to converse with its members on religious topics, and to pray 
 with and for them. His son followed in the same beneficent path, was intensely 
 interested in religious affairs, had committed not less than half the contents of the 
 Bible to memory, and was always ready to speak of the things pertaining to the 
 kingdom of God. The influence of such examples and of such teaching upon his 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 323 
 
 children was benign and powerful. He literally obeyed the injunctions of the 
 Almighty to the Israelitish people, and through them to all people, to speak of His 
 precepts and promises to their children, when lying down, rising up and walking by 
 the way. 
 
 Young Camp's abilities were utilized while he was yet in very tender years. At 
 the age of four he was tied on a horse used in ploughing. The child slipped from 
 the back of the animal on one occasion, and narrowly escaped violent death, while 
 the frightened horse ran about the field, with the strange burden dangling against 
 his legs. Incidents similar in character are recorded of several eminent men, who 
 in their childhood were providentially preserved to accomplish their destined mission 
 in mature life. Such educational advantages as the common country schools of the 
 time afforded were appropriated by the rapidly-developing youth. The study of 
 DaboU's Arithmetic, and of Walker's Spelling-Book was not a complete preparation 
 for business life by any means, but it was much better than none. The value of 
 opportunity to individuals resides largely in their own disposition to improve it. 
 Hiram Camp eagerly seized the opportunity presented, and then proceeded to make 
 further opportunities for himself. He had a natural taste for mechanical pursuits, and 
 besought his father's permission to work with his uncle in the manufacture of clocks. 
 It was finally determined that he might do so on attaining the age of eighteen. 
 When that eventful epoch arrived — breakfast over, family worship ended, "Good-by" 
 pronounced to parents and sisters, he struck a direct line across the country for 
 about ten miles to the residence of Chauncey Jerome, his mother's brother. All his 
 worldly goods were then tied up within the hmits of a cotton handkerchief Mr. 
 Jerome received his nephew with kindness, and ere long put him in charge of all 
 his works. The business association then formed continued for somewhat more than 
 twenty years. 
 
 At that period the clock manufacture was in its infancy. Little had been 
 done toward its establishment in this country previous to the year 181 5. From 
 that time to 1829 it grew slowly, and by the aid of machinery that was small in 
 quantity and poor in quality. Since then vast improvements, to which Mr. Camp 
 has largely contributed, have been effected. 
 
 The measurement of time by the mechanical contrivances known as clocks, is 
 comparatively of ver}' recent date. The sun-dial and the clepsydra were the early 
 machines used for that purpose— the first showing apparent time, and the latter 
 giving a rude approximation to mean time. These inadequate instruments doubtless 
 provoked the inventive ingenuity of the unknown person, or persons, to whom the 
 world is indebted for its invaluable clocks. Whether he or they were French, 
 German, or Italian is impossible now to determine, Striking clocks were known in 
 
324 BIOGMAP H ICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Italy in the latter part of the thirteenth, or the beginning of the fourteenth century. 
 In the year 1288, the fine imposed on the Chief Justice of the King's Bench was 
 appropriated to furnishing a clock for the famous clock-house near Westminister 
 Hall. St. Mary's, at Oxford, was not provided with a clock until 1523, when one 
 was paid for out of fines imposed on the students of the university. Venice did 
 not obtain a clock, according to one author, until 1497. Henry de Wyck, a Ger- 
 man artist, who placed a clock in the tower of the palace of Charles V., about the 
 year 1364, is held by some to have been the inventor of the machine; but it is 
 more probable, as Berthoud suggests, that it is a compound of successive inventions, 
 each worthy of a separate contriver. Analogy certainly sustains this opinion, for the 
 timepieces of the present day have been brought to their present degree of perfec- 
 tion by consecutiv^e improvements upon the comparatively rude mechanism of De 
 Wyck. In 1560 the celebrated astronomer, Tycho Brahe, possessed four clocks 
 which indicated hours, minutes, and seconds. Prior to that year the substitution of 
 a main-spring for a weight, as the moving power, and also the application of the 
 fusee, must have taken place. Huyghens is often credited with the application of 
 the pendulum to the clock, and is entitled to the honor of having done so in a 
 masterly and scientific manner, although it is known that Richard Harris, a London 
 artist, invented a long pendulum clock in 1641. 
 
 Science is much indebted to the ingenious manufacturers of clocks, for in 1577 
 Moestlin, by counting the number of beats made during the time of the sun's 
 passage over a meridian, determined the sun's diameter to be 34' 13''. Huyghens 
 discovered that the pendulum vibrated slower as it approached the equator, which led 
 the way to the subsequent discovery that the earth is not a globe, but an oblate 
 spheroid. 
 
 In 1680, Clement of London, invented the anchor escapement; and in 1715 
 George Graham discovered the means of rectifying the errors "of the pendulum, 
 caused by the contraction and expansion of metals under changes of temperature, 
 in the celebrated mercurial pendulum. He afterward introduced the dead-beat 
 escapement. Since his death numerous scientific improvements of great value have 
 been made by successive inventors, which have given to timepieces the quality of 
 precision to a degree that closely approximates perfection. Among the men through 
 whose genius and industry this splendid result has been attained, must be included 
 Hiram Camp of New Haven. In 1842 or '3 Mr. Jerome removed part of his works 
 —that for the making of cases— to New Haven. In 1845 — Mr. Camp havino- then 
 been for sixteen years in his employ — Jerome's movement shop was burned to the 
 ground, and much of the contained machinery destroyed. Measures were at once 
 taken to rebuild it, not in Bristol, Conn., but in New Haven.. Camp's services 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. ' 325 
 
 were imperatively required to superintend the erection and fitting-up of the factory 
 in its new location. His presence at Bristol was no less imperatively required by 
 the serious illness of Mrs«. Camp. The two places were over thirty miles apart. 
 No railroad then existed to reduce the time of the journey to an hour. The interven- 
 ing distance must be traversed on horseback. Herculean strength of constitution 
 enabled the devoted husband to sleep at home, take his breakfast and supper there, 
 and yet be in New Haven for eleven hours — from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. — throughout 
 the summer of 1845. 
 
 Mr. Camp is the inventor as well as the manufacturer of most of the different 
 kinds of clocks made at the present time. One of his most curious inventions 
 is a clock which beats time to music, and whose movements can be regulated at 
 will. It was designed for the use of schools in marking time for gymnastic, calls- 
 thenic, and military exercises. In 185 1 he entered into business on his own account, 
 erected a building, and began the manufacture of clock-movements. This enterprise 
 he prosecuted alone until 1853, when he organized a joint-stock association, under 
 the title of the New Haven Clock Company. The capital of the corporation was 
 fixed at $20,000. The officers were as follows : — Hiram Camp, President ; James 
 E. English — lately Governor of Connecticut and also United States Senator — Treas- 
 urer; and John Woodruff — since a member of Congress — Secretary. In 1856, the 
 New Haven Clock Company increased its capital and productive capacity by pur- 
 chasing the machinery and business of the Jerome Clock Manufacturing Company. 
 Its organization was slightly changed at the same time ; — James E. English becom- 
 ing Secretary as well as Treasurer. He was afterward succeeded in the former 
 office by Edward Stevens, the present Secretary, and the capital stock was simul- 
 taneously increased to $200,000. Throughout all these changes Mr. Camp has 
 retained the presidency of the company, and the general management of the manufac- 
 turing department. More clocks have been made under his supervision than under 
 that of any one living man. His management of an establishment, making more clocks 
 than any other on the globe, extends backwards from the present date for more 
 than forty years. Until within the past twenty-five or thirty years, the principal 
 seats of the clock manufacture have been in England, France, and Switzerland. 
 But the United States have made, and are still making, gigantic strides toward 
 the leadership in this, as in other branches of mechanical art. What the census 
 of 1880 will reveal cannot now be anticipated, except that its publication is sure 
 to disclose astonishing progress within the last decade. The U. S. Census of 1870 
 shows that in that year there were 46 establishments in this country devoted to 
 the fabrication of clocks, clock cases, and clock materials ; that the machinery in 
 these establishments was run by 18 steam engines and 29 water-wheels; that 1605 
 
326 • BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 hands were employed; that the capital invested in them amounted to $1,133,650; 
 and that the wholesale value of their products reached the sum of $3,022,253. Of 
 these aggregates, the State of Connecticut had 28 establishments, 11 steam-engines, 
 27 water-wheels, 1471 employees, $1,008,650 invested capital, and $2,747,153 in whole- 
 sale value of the products. 
 
 Mr. Camp's energies have not been wholly confined within the limits of manu- 
 facture and trade. He has filled several public offices in deference to the wishes of 
 the people — such as member of the City Council, Selectman of the Town, Chief 
 Engineer of the Civic Fire Department, and member of the State Legislature. The 
 Emperor Charles V., after his stormy and eventful reign, sought peace in the seclu- 
 sion of the monastery at Yuste, in Spain. There he amused himself by the collection 
 and study of timepieces. Not one of them could he compel to keep precisely the 
 same time with another ; nor could he hold any one in exact correspondence with 
 the movements of the heavenly bodies. From this deficiency of power over 
 mechanical arrangements in carrying out his purposes he inferred, when too late, his 
 supreme folly in having imperiously striven to make his multitudinous subjects think 
 and worship just as he had done. Mind is more variable than matter, and is gov- 
 erned by other forces. Not less pious, but vastly more wise, than he, Mr. Camp 
 seeks to bring about the harmony of human heart and life with the mind and will 
 of the Almighty Mechanic of the universe, by supporting two Sabbath-school 
 missionaries in Nebraska, and also a city missionary in another State. He knows 
 that each human being has his place in the world mechanism — whether it corre- 
 spond to that of wheel, fusee, escapement, or merely tooth or peg — and aims through 
 the instrumentality of his missionary agents, and the help of the Divine Spirit, to 
 fit each for his place in the great whole ; so that humanity in its entireness may 
 move in perfect accord and concord with the Great Author of Nature and the 
 Giver of all Grace. 
 
^Mra 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 3^7 
 
 •ILCOX, LUCIEN S., A.M., M.D., of Hartford. Born in West Granby, 
 Conn., July 17th, 1826. His father, J. D. Wilcox, M.D., was also a native 
 of Connecticut, and for forty years was a general medical practitioner 
 at West Granby, where he died in 1871, aged seventy-one. His mother, 
 whose maiden name was Emmeline B. Hayes, was also of Connecticut birth and 
 training. 
 
 Dr. Wilcox received his preliminary education in the academy at Westfield, Mass., 
 entered Yale College in 1846, graduated A.B. in 1850, and subsequently received the 
 degree of A.M. in due course. He then pursued the regular course of studies in the 
 medical department of the University, and received the diploma of M.D., from its 
 constituted heads in 1855. During the ensuing year he practised the duties of his 
 profession in the Cherokee nation, and also officiated as an instructor in the Chero- 
 kee Seminary. The labors of Dr. Wilcox, while in the Indian Territory, powerfully 
 aided to return an emphatic " No" to the much-debated question : — " Are the Indians 
 dying out ? " Probably no division of the aboriginal race has suffered more from 
 contact with European immigrants than the Cherokees. Adair, who lived forty years 
 among the southern Indians, estimated the number of Cherokees in 1722, at 6000 
 warriors, or 30,000 souls, and forty years later, according to John Eaton, in his 
 Preliminary Observations relating to Indian Civilization and Education, at 2300 
 warriors, or 11,500 souls. Drake, the Indian historian, attributes the terrible 
 decrease to the small-pox introduced among them by the slave-traders in 1738. 
 Gallatin, on the authority of the Indian Department, estimated their number at about 
 15,000 in 1836. Two years later, in 1838, they were forcibly expatriated, and lost 
 about one-fourth of their whole number by the hardships incident to their removal. 
 The Missionary Herald, vol. 36, page 14, states that "from the time they were 
 gathered into camps by the United States troops in May and June, 1838, till the 
 time the last detachment reached the Arkansas country, which was about ten 
 months, a careful estimate shows that not less than 4000 or 4500 were removed by 
 death, being on an average from thirteen to fifteen deaths in a day, for the whole 
 period, out of a population of 16,000, or one-fourth of the whole number. It does 
 not appear that this mortality was owing to neglect or bad treatment while on 
 the journey. It was probably necessarily involved in the measure itself, however 
 carefully the arrangements might have been made, or however faithfully executed." 
 In their new home, and also in their old seats, the Cherokees have since increased, 
 according to the report of the Indian Office for 1876, to 21,072 souls. The Chero- 
 kees evidently, are not dying out. It is to the praise of Dr. Wilcox, and of phil- 
 anthropists like him, that they are numerically increasing and socially prosperous; 
 and that they are preparing to take their place eventually among the citizens of 
 the United States of America. 
 
328 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Leaving the Indian Territory in 1857, Dr. Wilcox settled in Hartford, and has 
 since been in active practice in that city. In 1877 he was elected to the chair 
 of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Medical School connected with 
 Yale College and is now its incumbent. For many years he has been a contrib- 
 utor to the Transactions of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and has con- 
 fined himself chiefly to subjects of sanitary character. His wide range of professional 
 knowledge has been wisely utilized by the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance 
 Company, of which he is the Medical Director, since 1865. 
 
 A 
 
 LACKSTONE, LORENZO, of Norwich, Conn., State Senator. Born June 
 ^1W 19th, 1819, at Branford, and was educated at the Branford Academy. The 
 Blackstone family is one familiarly known to all students of English litera- 
 ti ture. No lawyer, either in Great Britain, the United States, or the Brit- 
 ish colonies, is unacquainted with the Commentaries on the Laws of England, pub- 
 lished by Sir William Blackstone, 1 765-68. Distinguished legal authors, on both 
 sides of the Atlantic, have profitably exercised their profound learning and critical 
 acumen in annotations upon his pages. He was a master of the English language, 
 and the first of all [^institutional writers who taught jurisprudents to speak the 
 language of the scholar and the gentleman. Nor was he less eminent as a Chris- 
 tian than as a lawyer. England has had no son of whom she is more proud 
 than of him. 
 
 New England early received colonists from the Blackstone family in the mother 
 country. The first of them who appears in colonial records was an eccentric non- 
 conforming clergyman, who, as early as 1628, had settled in almost complete loneli- 
 ness on the peninsula of Shawmut, opposite that between Charles and Mystic rivers, 
 at the head of Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 When Governor Winthrop arrived at Charlestown in the summer of 1630, it 
 is stated in the records of that place that " Mr. Blackstone, dwelling on the other 
 side of Charles river, alone, at a place by the Indians called Shawmut, where he 
 only had a cottage, at or not far off from the place called Blackstone's Point, he 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 329 
 
 came and acquainted the Governor of an excellent spring there, withal inviting 
 him and soliciting him thither, whereupon, after the death of Mr. Johnson and 
 divers others, the Governor, with Mr. Wilson, and the greatest part of the church, 
 removed thither." In consideration of his services, 50 acres of land, near his house 
 in Boston, were granted to Blackstone forever, at a court held in April, 1633. 
 
 But the "old planter" did not choose to remain in the neighborhood of his 
 new associates. He soon removed to the banks of the Pawtucket River, within 
 the present limits of the State of Rhode Island. There he met with Roger Wil- 
 liams, the founder of the Baptist denomination in America. " Like Maverick and 
 some other of the old planters, though no church member, he had been admitted 
 a freeman of the company ; but he sold his land, bought cattle, and removed. He 
 left England because he could not endure the lords bishops, and he liked the ' lords 
 brethren ' just as little. Such was his account of the matter ; yet he had no sym- 
 pathy with Williams, and continued to acknowledge the jurisdiction of Massachu- 
 setts." — Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 231-2. 
 
 From 1843 to 1857 Senator Blackstone was engaged in mercantile pursuits, 
 both in Liverpool and London. He is now a well-known banker and manufacturer 
 at Norwich. He is also President of the Chelsea Savings Bank, and has been in 
 that position since its organization. Of the Thames National Bank, and of the 
 Thames Loan and Trust Company he is a director ; is also director in three rail- 
 road companies, director in the Tonemah Mills, and of the Executive Committee 
 of Management. To the Attawangan, Ballou, Totokett, and Pequot Mills he sustains 
 the relation of treasurer. 
 
 In local affairs Mr. Blackstone is deeply and beneficently interested, and serves 
 as Trustee of the Norwich Free Academy. Of the Board of Alderman of the City 
 of Norwich he was a member for four years, was Mayor for a similar period, and 
 represented his constituents in the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1871. 
 In 1878 he was elected, on the Republican ticket, to membership in the State 
 Senate, and served, in 1879, as chairman of the Committee on Finance, with marked 
 ability and success. His extensive and protracted business experience, acknowledged 
 skill in financial matters, thorough acquaintance with legislation and manifold accom- 
 plishments of head and heart, enabled him to wield powerful influence among his 
 fellow-legislators, and that in the best interests of the State. 
 
BIOGkAPHICAL EJVCVCLOP^DIA. 
 
 ^OOLITTLE, TILTON EDWIN, lawyer, of New Haven. Born at River- 
 ton, Conn., July 31st, 1825. His father, Ambrose E., and his grandfather- 
 Benjamin Doolittle, were natives of Cheshire, Conn., and farmers by occupa- 
 tion. The Doolittles ai'e of English origin, and allied by faith and moral 
 characteristics, and possibly also by blood, with that sturdy Dissenting minister, Doo- 
 little, of whom a record, preserved in an old London library, states that when ordered 
 by troopers to desist from preaching, he positively refused to do so, on the ground 
 that his ministerial authority was derived from the King of kings. The same godly 
 and manful spirit prompted the first emigrants of the name to leave England for 
 settlement on the lands acquired by purchase of their co-religionists from the aborig- 
 ines of New England. Abraham and John Doolittle, brothers, were resident in 
 Massachusetts soon after the settlement of Salem, in which John died childless. 
 Abraham removed to New Haven prior to 1642, and was the owner of a house in 
 that town in or about the same year. He took the freeman's oath in 1644, and 
 became the chief executive officer, or sheriff, of the county. He was next chosen 
 by the people of New Haven, in 1669, one of the committee appointed to super- 
 intend the affairs of the new colony located in the town of Wallingford, which was 
 incorporated May 12th, 1670, by Act of the Court of Election held at Hartford. 
 Dr. C. H. S. Davis, in his History of Wallingford states that " this committee held 
 the land in trust, and acted as trustees in all the affairs of the town ; they not 
 only attended to the temporal, but the spiritual affairs of the people," and obliged the 
 undertakers and all succeeding planters to subscribe an engagement not to disturb 
 the church when settled there, "in the choice of minister or ministers, or other church 
 officers, or in any of their other church rights, liberties or administrations," and not to 
 " withdraw due maintenance from such ministry." Abraham Doolittle had been on 
 the ground as early as 1668, and was well aware of the social and material value 
 of a settled ministry to the new community. In the famous Indian war, known as 
 " King Philip's war," he was a member of the Vigilance Committee, and from his 
 signature, "Sergeant Doolittle," to a church covenant on Feb. 15th, 1675, seems to 
 have held military rank among the defenders of the town. His dwelling was forti- 
 fied against any attack of the Indians by an encircling picket abattis. He was 
 several times elected deputy from New Haven, and afterward from Wallingford to 
 the General Court. He was also chosen townsman, or selectman, on different occa- 
 sions, and appears to have been a valuable and highly appreciated citizen. He died 
 August nth, 1690. From this notable veteran Mr. T. E. Doolittle is a descendant 
 of the seventh generation. His mother was Elizabeth A., daughter of General Ben- 
 ham, a farmer, of Cheshire, Conn., and a descendant of Joseph Benham, who remov- 
 ed from New Haven to Wallingford in 1670. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, 331 
 
 The early education of Mr. Doolittle was received in the Protestant Episcopal 
 Academy at Cheshire, whence he repaired to Trinity College, Hartford, matriculating 
 there in 1840, and graduating A.B. in 1844, and afterward A.M. in due course. 
 Next he entered the Yale Law School, graduated, and was admitted to the Bar 
 in 1847. From that year until 1861 he prosecuted the duties of his profession 
 alone ; then formed a copartnership with Judge Samuel L. Bronson, which lasted 
 until 1870. A period of four years individualized practice followed, and was suc- 
 ceeded in 1874 by business association with Judge Henry Stoddard. In 1876 Mr. 
 William L. Bennett was added to the firm, which is now in active practice, under 
 the style and title of Doolittle, Stoddard & Bennett. 
 
 In the spring of 1859 Mr. Doolittle was appointed United States District 
 Attorney, by President James Buchanan, in place of Judge W. D. Shipman, who 
 was appointed to the District Judiciary of the United States Court. Mr. Doolittle 
 retained his office until i860. In 1866, 1867, and 1870, he was a member from 
 New Haven of the lower house of the State Legislature, and served mainly in the 
 Committee on the Judiciary. In 1874, he was again a member from the same 
 district, and officiated as Speaker of the House. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle practised law from 1846 to 1850 in Cheshire; from 1850 to 1858 
 in Meriden, and thence removed to New Haven, where he has since resided. As 
 a lawyer, his professional standing is of the first rank, and his services are in great 
 demand. During the earlier portion of his active career he addicted himself chiefly to 
 civil suits. Since then he has accepted many briefs in criminal cases, and appears more 
 frequently in the courts than any other lawyer in the county. 
 
 On the I St of November, 1848, he was united in marriage with Mary A., 
 daughter of John Cook, of Wallingford, and has issue three children — one daughter 
 and two sons. 
 
332 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 VES, LEVI, M.D., of New Haven. Born in New Haven, July 13th, 1816. 
 
 His father, Dr. Eli Ives, was one of the most eminent medical practitioners 
 ^^^ and professors in that city. His mother, nee Maria Beers, was the daughter 
 T of Nathan Beers, who, in early life, was an adjutant in the Continental 
 army, and had charge of the unfortunate Major Andr6 on the night before his 
 execution. During the hours of that night Major Andr^ made a pen portrait of 
 himself, and presented it to Mr. Beers. It is now in the Art Gallery of Yale 
 College. After seven years of patriotic military service, Nathan Beers returned to 
 New Haven, became an honored Deacon in the North Congregational Church, and 
 lived to the age of ninety-six. His widow survived to the age of ninety-eight. 
 
 The early education of young Ives was obtained at the Hopkins Grammar 
 School, after which he received a partial course of instruction in the Academical 
 department of Yale College. In 1834 he entered the office of his father as a 
 medical student, and afterwards took a full course of professional training in the 
 Medical School forming part of Yale University, from which he graduated as 
 Doctor of Medicine, in February, 1838. The ensuing eighteen months were spent 
 in medical observation and practice at Bellevue Hospital in the city of New York. 
 He then began the local practice of his profession in New Haven, where he has 
 since resided, and sustained the high hereditary fame of this branch of the family. 
 Obstetrics, for many years, was his specialty, and in this department of professional 
 service he acquired an immense practice. While at the zenith of reputation, for 
 reasons satisfactory to himself, he determined to relinquish the further pursuit of 
 that particular science, and has since entered on a wider range of professional 
 activity. He is now Consulting Physician -and Surgeon to the Connecticut State 
 Hospital, situated at New Haven. Dr. Ives is a member of the New Haven Med- 
 ical Association, of the Connecticut Medical Association, and of the American Med- 
 ical Association, to which he has repeatedly been a delegate. He has also been a 
 member, for many years, of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Art. 
 
 In June, 1841, he married CaroHne, daughter of Elijah Shoemaker, of Wyoming 
 Valley, in Pennsylvania ; and grand-daughter of Elijah Shoemaker, one of the vic- 
 tims of the. infamous Wyoming massacre. The issue of this marriage is Robert 
 S. Ives, M.D., born in April, 1842, a graduate of the academic and medical 
 departments of Yale, and a physician in active practice at New Haven. 
 
r - 
 
 'iCL 
 
 /" .' 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 333 
 
 |OE, LYMAN W., of Torrington, (Wolcottville), Conn., State Senator. Born in 
 Torrington, January 20th, 1820. Plis father, Israel Coe, is of the eighth genera- 
 tion in line of direct descent from Robert Coe, who was born in the county 
 of SuflFolk, England, in 1596, and emigrated to this country in 1634. Robert 
 Coe settled first in Watertown, Mass., then removed, in 1636, with a colony of pioneers 
 to the banks of the Connecticut River, and thence, in 1640, again migrated, in 
 company with others who sought a more satisfactory home, to a locality on Long 
 Island Sound, where they founded the town of Stamford. 
 
 Jonathan Coe, fifth in descent from the original immigrant, was born in Dur- 
 ham, Conn., in 1710. From thence he removed to Torrington, and subsequently to 
 Winchester. In 18 13, Israel Coe, father of the Senator, entered into the employment 
 of the Torrington Cotton Factory Company, and remained in that relation until 
 182 1, when he repaired to Waterbury. In 1825 he accepted employment from A. 
 Benedict, and in January, 1829, purchased the interest of Nathan Smith in that 
 gentleman's business establishment, which was reorganized under the firm-title of 
 Benedict, Coe & Co. The term of partnership expired in February, 1834, and Mr. 
 Coe retired from the concern. He next engaged in the manufacture of brass kettles 
 at Wolcottville, and erected a mill at Wolcottville for the better prosecution of his 
 enterprise. In 1841 he organized a joint-stock association, under the title of the 
 Wolcottville Brass Company, of which he became the president, and Lyman W. 
 Coe, the secretary and treasurer. 
 
 In July, 1843, Israel Coe retired from the presidency of the association, and 
 engaged in banking at Detroit. During his residence in Waterbury he was elected 
 to the lower house of the State Legislature in 1824 and 1825, and in 1843 repre- 
 sented the district that includes Wolcottville in the Senate. 
 
 Both in manufacturing enterprise and in political aptitude Lyman W. Coe is the 
 worthy successor of his energetic and successful father. His scholastic education was 
 such as is ordinarily imparted in the excellent district schools of Connecticut — not 
 finished, but suggestive — not satiating, but stimulative. In 1845, ^t the age of twenty- 
 five, he was elected to the lower branch of the Legislature from Torrington. After 
 his removal to Waterbury he represented that town in the House iti 1858, and 
 also the Fifth District of the State in the Senate in 1862. In 1877-8-9 he was 
 again a member of the same body, and was re-elected in November, 1879, for the 
 further space of two years — being his third senatorial term of service from the 
 Fifteenth District. 
 
 Senator Coe has officiated, at different times, as chairman of the Committees 
 on Railroads, Cities and Boroughs, New Towns and Probate Districts, Judicial 
 Expenses, and President pro tempore of the Senate. In each of these positions he 
 
334 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 has faithfully discharged the duties pertaining to it, to the general satisfaction of 
 the public, and the increase of his own reputation as a faithful, diligent, and bene- 
 ficent legislator. His thirty years of residence at Waterbury were spent in vigorous 
 and efficient contribution to its prosperity, as general agent and manager of some 
 of the largest corporations in that place. 
 
 On his return to Wolcottville, a few years ago, he organized the Coe Brass 
 Manufacturing Company — now one of the most prosperous associations in the Nauga- 
 tuck valley — and has been its president from the date of its establishment. It has 
 been one of the largest producing mills in the brass industry in New England, and 
 enjoys a large foreign trade — particularly with Russia and Spain. The manufacture 
 of brass for metallic cartridges is one of its special features. The business interests of 
 his corporation have required Mr. Coe to visit Europe no less than seven different 
 times. A keen, shrewd observer, naturally addicted to generalization, and quick to 
 apply conclusions with a view to speedy practical results, he has not only visited 
 the objects of usual interest in the principal European cities, but has investigated 
 the working of the several systems of government, the financial and manufacturing 
 undertakings, and the condition of the laboring classes as compared with that of 
 American artisans. It scarcely needs to be said that in all these particulars he 
 holds that our own free Republic possesses greater and better facilities for the devel- 
 opment, prosperity, and happiness of the vast majority of the people than can be 
 found in any and all other countries. 
 
 Senator Coe was married on the 3d day of November, 1841, to Eliza Seymour, 
 of Wolcottville, and has three children, two daughters and one son, all married, 
 two being at Wolcottville, and one at Union City, wife of W. H. K. Godfery. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 33S 
 
 |LY, JAMES WINCHELL COLEMAN, M.D., of Providence, Rhode Island. 
 Born in West Windsor, Vermont, October, and, 1820. His father, the Rev. 
 Richard Montgomery Ely, was a Baptist clergyman, and a native of the same 
 town. He was born February loth, 1795, and died in Cavendish, Vermont, 
 on the loth of June, 1861, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. His widow is 
 still living, and, at the age of eighty-four, enjoys excellent health. The paternal 
 grandfather of Dr. Ely was an emigrant from Springfield, Mass, and a settler in 
 West Windsor, Vt. 
 
 While " the glory of children are their fathers " the desire of the children will 
 necessarily be to learn all they possibly can about their fathers. This desire lies 
 behind the family gatherings which, within the past fifty years, have become so 
 noticeable a feature of New England life. jOn the loth of July, 1878, very many 
 of the descendants of Richard and of Nathaniel Ely, the original immigrants, held 
 a family reunion at Lyme, Connecticut. On that occasion many extracts from the 
 family archives were read to the assembly, and the statement was made that from 
 all those archives " not a single scandal that would make one startling heading for 
 a modern newspaper" had been unearthed. Loyalty seems to have been the grand 
 characteristic of the Ely family from time immemorial. " They recognized the Divine 
 Fatherhood, and brought to His reverent worship no lip service. Broad and inde- 
 pendent thinkers; they were sometimes in advance of theological dogma, but they 
 never revolted into Atheism ; for they came to every investigation in a spirit of 
 loyal faith, not of arrogant scepticism. In time of peace they served the State as 
 good citizens ; — if called to civil office, with unsoiled palms. But when danger threat- 
 ened the country they sprang to arms with passionate patriotism." — History of the 
 Ely Reunion, p. 3. 
 
 Whether the family be of British, Saxon, or Norman ancestry, it is extremely 
 difficult to decide. It is certain that some of its members have enacted an honorable 
 part in the stirring dramas of English history. Ever since the sixteenth century, and 
 probably for a much longer period, the Ely family has borne as a coat of arms : — " A 
 fesse engrailed on a shield argent between six fleurs-de-lis or; crest, an arm erect, vest- 
 ed, argent, in hand ppr., a fleur-de-lis sable." Not the least in point of real nobility 
 and worth, of those entitled to this feudal distinction, was Nathaniel, the first Ameri- 
 can ancestor of Dr. Ely. No known record gives the date of Nathaniel Ely's arrival 
 in this country. "He probably came in 1632, or 1633. He was made a freeman on 
 the 6th of May, 1635, at Cambridge, Mass. The quahfications of a freeman were, that 
 he should be 'twenty-one years of age, of sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox 
 in the fundamentals of religion, and possessed of a ratable estate of twenty pounds,' 
 and it is said that some of the best men of the colony, lacking one or more of 
 these qualifications, were precluded." _ _ 
 
336 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C L O P.-E D 1 A . 
 
 In June, 1636, the eastern part of the Massachusetts colony had become too 
 much crowded for the comfort of the inhabitants, and therefore the Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, with about one hundred others, men, women, and children, including Na- 
 thaniel Ely, left Cambridge, and made the first settlement of the city of Hartford, 
 in Connecticut. There Nathaniel Ely acquired lands, was elected one of the Con- 
 stables of the town in 1639, a Selectman in 1643, and again in 1649. But in the 
 latter year this hardy pioneer decided that Hartford was becoming too great a city for 
 one of his tastes and habits, and therefore sought and received permission from the 
 General Court to settle in what is now the town of Norwalk. "In 165 1 Nathaniel 
 Ely, Richard Olmsted, and others removed to Norwalk. On the 15th day of Febru- 
 ary, 165 1, the Indians deeded to Nathaniel Ely and others the west part of the town 
 of Norwalk, this conveyance being witnessed by Samuel Ely, son of Nathaniel. Dur- 
 ing his residence in Norwalk he was called to various official positions in the town, 
 and in 1657 was its representative in the General Court." Not content to spend 
 the remainder of his days in this, his third place of residence, he migrated again in 
 1660 to Springfield, Mass., where he died, December 5th, 1675, leaving only one 
 son, Samuel, of whom any account has been preserved. 
 
 From this roving and adventurous founder of civilized communities Dr. Ely is 
 of the eighth generation, in the line of direct descent. His mother, nee Laura, 
 daughter of Benjamin Skinner, was a native of Pomfret, Vt., of which her father 
 was an early settler. He afterwards removed to West Windsor, and is further 
 memorable as the forefather of a line of Universalist ministers, bearing the name 
 Skinner. 
 
 The primary education of young Ely was imparted in the common schools of 
 his native town ; and his complete preparation for college received at Townsend, Vt, 
 under the care of Mr. Wheeler, who afterward held the incumbency of the Greek 
 Professorship in Brown University. To the latter institution the pupil also bent 
 his steps, entered therein Se})tember 1838, and graduated therefrom as A.B., in 1842. 
 Electing the profession of medicine, he next liegan the study of its theory and 
 practice at Chester, Vt., in the office of Dr. Al)ram Lowell, with whom he remained 
 about eight months. Pie then entered the office of Dr. Henry Tucker, of Barns- 
 table, Mass. From thence he repaired to Boston, and pursued his studies under 
 the direction of Dr. Charles Steadman, who was in charge of the medical department 
 of the State institutions then located at the Capitol. In these — the House of Indus- 
 try, the House of Correction, the Reform School fur boys, and the Lunatic Asylum 
 
 Mr. Ely practised for some time as House Physician and Interne, thus frainino- laro-e 
 and most useful experience. In April 1S45 li*^ relinquished his position under 
 Dr. Steadman at Boston, returned to his old preceptor, Dr. Tucker, at Barnstable, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 337 
 
 and assisted him in practice up to the time of his death in June of the same year, 
 He then finished his office studies under the auspices of Dr. Jackson, who was 
 also resident in Barnstable. Besides the theoretical and practical knowledge gained 
 in these successive relations, Mr. Ely received that derived from the regular course 
 of lectures in the Harvard Medical School, from which he received his diploma of 
 M.D., in March, 1846. 
 
 On the 20th of April, 1846, Dr. Ely settled in Providence, R. I., opened an 
 office in that city, and has since pursued the duties of his profession in the same 
 locality up to the present time. In 1847 he joined the State Medical Society, and 
 subsequently filled most of the offices within its gift, including that of president. 
 About the year 1850, he received the appointment of Attending Physician to the 
 Dexter Asylum, exercised the functions of his office for upwards of sixteen years, 
 and latterly has been Consulting Physician to the same institution. In 1868 he 
 was selected for the post of Visiting Physician to the Rhode Island Hospital at 
 its opening, and discharged the duties appurtenant thereto until 1874. Since then 
 he has been Consulting Physician to the Hospital, and has also officiated as Consult- 
 ing Physician to the Butler Hospital for the Insane. 
 
 Dr. Ely is a member of the Providence Historical Society, and also of the 
 Franklin Society of Science. In educational affairs he has uniformly exhibited the 
 deepest interest ; has served for two years on the School Committee, but was com- 
 pelled to decline further usefulness in that capacity by the unrelenting pressure of 
 professional claims. He is the author of several extremely valuable contributions to 
 modern medical science. His monograph on "■Fatty Degeneratiojt ; being the 
 Annual Discourse delivered before the Rhode. Island Medical Society, at Providence, 
 June 2()th, 1853, and Published by request of the Society" also published in the 
 American journal of the Medical Sciences, for January, 1854, is a repertory of exten- 
 sive, digested and admirably arranged knowledge of that somewhat obscure subject. 
 It is written with great clearness and force, and prescribes the treatment, as well 
 as describes the nature and symptoms, of the disease. 
 
 Dr. Ely was married on June 6th, 1848, to Susan, daughter of Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Thomas Backus, of Killingley, Conn. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 OBINSON, HENRY C, lawyer, of Hartford. Born in that city, August 
 28th, 1832. His father, David F. Robinson, was a native of Granville, 
 Mass., and removed to Hartford early in life. For many years he was 
 '''yS largely engaged in book publishing, and was also, for a long time. Presi- 
 dent of the Hartford Bank, one of the most venerable and vigorous monetary 
 institutions of the locality. His wife, the mother of Mr. H. C. Robinson, nlie 
 Annie Seymour, was a lineal descendant of Elder Brewster, one of the leaders of 
 the " Mayflower " Pilgrims. On the paternal side he is descended from the Rev. 
 John Robinson, than whose no name is more deservedly revered by the Congre- 
 gationalists of New England. At twenty-five years of age John Robinson 
 was a Master of Arts in the University of Cambridge, and prior to that 
 a Fellow of Corpus Christi College there. He was also, according to Dr. Leon- 
 ard Bacon's Genesis of the New England Churches, in deacon's orders in the Church 
 of England, a useful, hard-working minister of Christ, " a man of a learned, polished, 
 and modest spirit, pious and studious of the truth, largely accomplished with suit- 
 able gifts and qualifications." From purely conscientious motives he became a 
 Separatist from the Church of England, and in common with his brethren of the 
 same religious persuasion, suffered much persecution from the eager severity of the 
 bishops, by whom they were driven into exile. Escaping in small parties to 
 Holland, they established themselves at Amsterdam, from which Robinson, accom- 
 panied by his followers, removed to Leyden, where they enjoyed all the privileges 
 of religious liberty. There he connected himself with the University, gained great 
 public favor, and acquired high renown among his co-believers by contending pub- 
 licly against the Arminian Episcopius. 
 
 In Leyden he performed a truly great work in training the exiled Pilgrims 
 for their wonderful destiny of patient suffering and. unprecedented achievement. 
 Their chronicler, William Bradford, in words of touching pathos, describes his 
 influence upon them: "Such," he wrote, "was the mutual love and reciprocal 
 respect that this worthy man had to his flock and his flock to him . . . that it 
 was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having such a people, or they 
 in having such a pastor. His love was great toward them, and his care was 
 always bent for their best good both for soul and body. For, besides his singular 
 abilities in divine things, wherein he excelled, he was also very able to give 
 directions in civil affairs; by which means he was very helpful to their outward 
 estates, and so was every way as a common father unto them. And none, did 
 more offend him than those that were close and cleaving to themselves and 
 retired from the common good ; as also such as would be stiff and rigid in mat- 
 ters of outward order, and inveigh against the evils of others, and yet be remiss 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 
 
 339 
 
 in themselves, and not so careful to express a virtuous conversation. The church, 
 in like manner, had ever a reverent regard to him, and had him in precious 
 estimation, as his worth and v^isdom did deserve ; and though they esteemed him 
 highly while he hved and labored among them, yet much more after his death 
 when they came to feel the want of his help, and saw, by woful experience, what 
 a treasure they had lost." 
 
 Robinson was a voluminous writer, a vigorous polemic, and a pastor of pro- 
 foundest but most cheerful piety. When the first detachment of Pilgrims, destined 
 for voyage from Southampton, England, to Plymouth, New England, in the 
 memorable Mayflower, left Delft Haven, Holland, in the Speedwell, he and his family, 
 with a remnant of his congregation, were left behind. But he accompanied them to 
 the ship, where " heads are reverently uncovered ; all kneel for worship ; and once 
 more Robinson, with tremulous voice, commends the departing Pilgrims to Him 
 who rules the winds and the sea." Then, says Winslow, " lifting up our hands to 
 each other, and our hearts for each other to the Lord our God, we departed, and 
 found His presence with us." 
 
 Robinson was not permitted to join his emigrant flock in the New World. 
 He had exerted great influence in persuading them to undertake the foundation 
 of an English colony in America ; he had " great hope and inward zeal ... for 
 propagating and advancing the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote 
 parts ofi the world ;" he had repeatedly and judiciously advised them in affairs, 
 temporal and spiritual, after their settlement in New England ; but, in the ripeness 
 of wisdom and experience, he was called to his eternal rest, at the age of fifty 
 years, on the first of March, 1626, " leaving," as Dr. Bacon justly remarks, 
 " to the Church Universal a name worthy of everlasting remembrance." Some, if 
 not all, of his children, and all but a remnant of his flock, at last reached the 
 New England he longed for, and their descendants beheld what on English soil 
 he had not been permitted to see, — " a church without a bishop, and a state 
 without a king." 
 
 That branch of the renowned Separatist pastor's family with which Mr. Rob- 
 inson is identified, settled in Guilford, Conn., late in the seventeenth century. 
 Col. Timothy Robinson, his great-grandfather, served with distinction in the Revo- 
 lutionary war, and had the joy of seeing the principles, for which his godly clerical 
 ancestor had so heroically contended, victorious on the American continent. 
 
 The preparatory education of Henry C. Robinson was obtained in Hartford 
 schools. Thence, entering Yale College in 1849, he graduated in the class of 1853, 
 in company with many who have since risen to eminence in the various walks of 
 life; and, among the rest, of President White, of Cornell University, now United 
 
340 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 States Minister to Berlin. Then, electing the profession of law, he commeneed the 
 study of its theory and practice in the office of his brother, Lucius F. Robinson, 
 who, during his active career, was one of the most brilliant lawyers in his own 
 section of the country. He also studied under the direction of the late Chief Justice 
 W. L. Storrs. 
 
 Admitted to the Bar in 1855, he became associated in practice with his brother, 
 Lucius F., and maintained the connection until the death of the latter in 1861, 
 Since then he has practised alone, although his office associations have been with 
 some of the leading lawyers in the State; such as Judge W. B. Shipman, now of 
 New York, Waldo & Hyde, etc. As an attorney, Mr. Robinson has established a 
 high reputation, and, while occupied with general practice, has also acquired distinction 
 for his intimate knowledge of Insurance Law. 
 
 Official honors and responsibihties have frequently sought his acceptance. From 
 1872 to 1874 he was Mayor of Hartford, and, during his term of office, that city was 
 made the sole capital of the State. His influence was largely efficacious in bringing 
 about that desired consummation. In 1878 he was elected a member of the lower 
 house of the State Legislature, and served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee 
 Politically, he is affiliated with the Republican party, and has twice been its chosen 
 candidate for the Chief Magistracy of the Commonwealth : — first in 1876, and again, 
 in the succeeding Gubernatorial election, in which he lacked only 1,400 votes to 
 ensure success. For the mercantile and other interests of his native city, Mr. Rob- 
 inson has uniformly exhibited keen appreciation. His professional eminence is suffi- 
 ciently attested by the fact that for several years he has been leading counsel for the 
 New York, New Haven, & Hartford R. R., and also for the Connecticut Mutual 
 Life Insurance Company, etc. 
 
 In 1862 he was married to EHza, daughter of John F. Trumbull, of Stonington. 
 Between the Robinson and Trumbull families two prior alliances had been con- 
 tracted ; first, Lucius F. Robinson had married Eliza, daughter of Governor Joseph 
 Trumbull ; and, second, Sarah Robinson, sister of Lucius F. and Henry C, had mar- 
 ried Dr. John Hammond Trumbull, the celebrated philologist and antiquarian. 
 
A-^ 
 
 ri^ 
 
 i^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 341 
 
 ^OUGLAS, BENJAMIN, of Middletown, Ex-Lieutenant Governor of Con- 
 necticut. Born at Northford, Conn., April 3d, 1816. His is one of the 
 prominent New England families that can trace its pedigree backwards for 
 more than two hundred years to the first American immigrant ancestor. 
 Back again from that ancestor, this branch of the Douglas family, in common with 
 others, has certain historical knowledge of its forefathers up to a period when au- 
 thentic history is confused with the mists of tradition. 
 
 The Douglas family presents marked hereditary traits. Vigorous, persistent, war- 
 like, and masterful always — especially bold and aggressive when belligerent in defence 
 of their rights — loyal and faithful unto death in seasons of warfare ; in the times 
 of peace their energies are devoted with equal force to overcoming the difficulties 
 of politics, theology, law, medicine, and mechanics. The Douglases of Middletown 
 have achieved a pre-eminence in the field of hydraulics that reminds the observer 
 of similiar victorious achievements on other and more celebrated scenes of activity. 
 Than the Douglas family there is none more renowned in the romantic and 
 thrilling histories of the Scottish people. According to Hume's History of the House 
 and Race of Douglas and Angus, vol. /., //. 5, 6, it first appears in public in 
 the reign of Solvathius, King of Scotland, whose crown it preserved by a valorous 
 onset on the army of Donald Bain, at the moment the latter deemed himself sure 
 of victory. Donald's men were defeated, and Donald himself was slain. When the 
 King inquired for the valiant nobleman whose courage and address had won the 
 day, answer was made in the Gaelic tongue: — '' Sholto Du glass e ; that is to say. 
 Behold yonder black-gray man — pointing at him with the finger, and designing by 
 his color and complexion, without more ceremony, or addition of titles of honor." 
 Delighted with the merits and services of the man, the King imposed the name 
 of Douglas, and rewarded him royally with many large estates. This account may 
 or may not be wholly true to fact. Probability is undoubtedly in its favor. 
 
 The original arms of the Douglases in the days of chivalry were simply three 
 silver stars on a blue field ; a device which is held by heraldic antiquarians to 
 indicate relationship to the Murrays. " The cognizance of Douglas blood," as Sir 
 Walter Scott has expressed it, is given in Burke's Heraldry, and in ordinary language 
 may be thus described : — " Upon a field of silver, a man's heart, red, beneath an 
 imperial crown in its proper colors ; above the dividing line, upon a blue ground, 
 three stars of silver." The crowned heart was assumed in memory of the good Sir 
 James of Douglas, to whom the dying king Robert Bruce bequeathed his heart, 
 with the request that he would carry it to Jerusalem, and there bury it before the 
 high altar ; — a task which Hume states that he had happily accomplished before 
 his death. Tradition further states that on his way to the Holy Land he was 
 
342 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 beset by enemies, and that he threw the silver box into the midst of the mailed 
 crowd, exclaiming : — " Lead on, brave heart, as ever ; and I will follow." He did 
 so, fought with superhuman daring, and proved to be victor in the deadly melee. 
 
 The memory of such ancestors as the good Sir James is influential on the lives 
 of those in whose veins their blood runs. Ancestral characteristics^ of mental and 
 moral class, are as surely transmissible as those of the physical. The pride of birth 
 is no empty foolish thing, when it can be truthfully affirmed of forefathers, that 
 was boasted of the Douglases, by their historian, two centuries ago : — " We do not 
 know them in the fountain, but in the stream ; not in the root, but in the stem ; 
 for we know not who was the first mean man that did by his virtue raise him- 
 self above the vulgar ;" or when it can be said of them, as is said of Deacon 
 William Douglas, the first immigrant, that their precepts have been treasured by 
 their children, and have borne lasting fruit in the Christian character which has 
 marked the progress of the family to the present time. 
 
 William of Douglas was a conspicuous chieftain in Scotland between the years 
 1 1 75 and 12 13, and witnessed charters between the King and the Bishop of Glas- 
 gow. Another Sir William of Douglas, known in the family traditions as William 
 the Hardy, a daring, restless, adventurous warrior, was the first man of mark who 
 joined Wallace in the rising against the English in 1297. In 1357, Sir William 
 Douglas, the head of the house, who had hitherto borne no higher title than that of 
 knight, was made Earl of Douglas, in consideration of his brilliant feats at Poitiers, 
 and on other fields. Subsequently he became Earl of Mar, by marriage, and with 
 vaulting ambition disputed the succession to the Scottish crown with Robert II., 
 the first of the Stuarts. The pages of English and Scottish history bristle with 
 the exploits, the victories, the defeats of the Douglases ; of James, second Earl of 
 Douglas, and the conqueror of Hotspur, who fell at Otterburn in 1388; of Archibald, 
 the fourth Earl, surnamed the "Tyneman," or loser, from his many misfortunes in 
 battle ; of the Earls of Angus, the Marquises and Duke of Douglas, the Lords 
 Douglas, Earls of Morton, March, Solway, Selkirk, Forfar, Dumbarton, the Lords 
 Mordington, the Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of Queensberry ; — all men of the 
 Douglas blood. Since the arms of the British monarch have borne the triple de- 
 vice of the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock, there has been no battle of note 
 wherein the red cross of St. George has flamed in the van, that some loyal, fiery 
 Douglas has not spurred in its defense, and helped to bear on to triumph. 
 
 When the New World became accessible to the peoples of the old, it could 
 not well have been otherwise than that the Douglas blood and name should be 
 represented in the influx of brave and conscientious settlers. Robert Douglas, it is 
 beheved, was born in Scotland, about the year 1588. His son, William Douglas, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 343 
 
 was also born in the same country, in the year 1610. He found his way to 
 Ringstead, in Northamptonshire, England, and there married Ann, the only daughter 
 of Thomas Mattle, in 1636. Four years later, in 1640, William Douglas emigrated 
 to New England, with his wife and two children, Ann and Robert. Tradition states 
 that they landed at Cape Ann, and that they settled at Gloucester, but removed 
 to Boston that same year. The next year he removed to Ipswich, remained their 
 four years, and returned to Boston in 1645. He followed the coopers' trade in Bos- 
 ton, and in 1660 removed to New London, Conn., purchased property there, and 
 received the grant of two farms from the town in remuneration of his services. 
 One of these, inherited by his son William, has remained in the family, in the 
 direct line of his male descendants, for over two centuries. The other, granted to 
 him in 1667, was inherited by his eldest son, Robert, and is still in possession of 
 his direct male descendants. 
 
 Deacon William Douglas was active and efficient in the ecclesiastical and civil 
 affairs of the town, and after the outbreak of King Phillip's war in 1675, was ap- 
 pointed one of the Commissaries to the army by the General Council convened at 
 Hartford, May 19th, 1676. He also represented his town in the General Court at 
 several different sessions. When he died, in the seventy-second year of his age, 
 the Rev. Simon Bradstreet, his pastor, noted the event in his diary, and added the 
 simple but touching remark : — " He was an able Christian and this poor church will 
 much want him." 
 
 Of the five children of Deacon Douglas, William, the youngest, was born in Bos- 
 ton, Mass., April ist, 1645. He succeeded his father in the diaconate of the church 
 on the death of the latter in 1682, and held that honorable and important office 
 for upwards of fifty years, until his death. He was twice married ; first to Abiah 
 Hough, by whom he had eight children ; and ^second, to the widow Mary Bushnell, 
 who survived him. His third child, William, was born in New London, Conn., Febru- 
 ary 19th, 1672-3, was admitted to the church in 1698, and in 1699 removed with his 
 wife and two children to "the new plantation on the Quinnebaug, which was after- 
 wards named Plainfield," and where he became the proprietor of many broad and 
 goodly acres. There, too, he aided in the organization of a church, of which he was 
 chosen the first deacon. He married Sarah Proctor, by whom he had twelve chil- 
 dren. Deacon Douglas died, greatly lamented, in the forty-sixth year of his age. 
 
 The fifth child of this Deacon Douglas, named John, was born at Plainfield, 
 Conn., July 28th, 1703, and married Olive, daughter of Benjamin Spaulding of _ Plain- 
 field. He was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighth Connecticut Regiment, the best 
 equipped in the colony, and the participant in a number of engagements. Colonel 
 Douglas was a man of great note in his day. Two of his sons. General John, and 
 
344 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 Colonel William, served with distinction in the Revolutionary War; and a third, 
 Benjamin, who was a graduate of Yale College, would undoubtedly have gained dis- 
 tinction in the legal profession, but for his untimely death at the age of thirty-six 
 years. 
 
 Of the seven children of Colonel John' Douglas, William, born January 17, O. S., 
 1742-3, was the fifth. He was born in Plainfield, and at the early age of sixteen 
 years become an actor in the old French and Indian war. He served as orderly 
 sergeant in the company under Israel Putnam, and in the expedition that cap- 
 tured Quebec, in 1759, and brought the war to an end. After that, he removed to 
 New Haven, engaged in the seafaring business, acquired command of a merchant 
 ship trading between New Haven and the West Indies, and amassed what was 
 then looked upon as a large fortune. When hostilities between the mother coun- 
 try and the colonies began, he abandoned the sea, and with the courage and enthu- 
 siasm of the Douglas at Otterburn and at Hamildoun, raised a military company 
 in New Haven, of which he was commissioned captain. May i6th, 1775. Reporting 
 in the north, with provisions and supplies for the troops under Montgomery, he 
 was requested by that General to take command of the flotilla on Lake Cham- 
 plain. In the position of Commodore of the little fleet he rendered excellent service 
 in the siege and capture of St. John's, on the Richelieu outlet of the lake, and 
 took large quantities of provisions, arms, military stores and cannon. The latter 
 were sent across the country and used in the defence of Boston. In 1776 he 
 raised a regiment of soldiers in the vicinity of New Haven, and was commissioned 
 Colonel thereof by Governor Trumbull, June 20th, 1776. Incorporated with the Con- 
 tinental army under General Washington, he and his command shared in the 
 disastrous campaign of Long Island, and in the actions at Harlem Heights, White 
 Plains, Phillips Manor, Croton River, and New York. In the engagement of 
 August 27th on Long Island, his regiment of five hundred effective men suffered a 
 loss of two-fifths of their number; and in the conflict of September 15th, at Har- 
 lem Heights, his clothes were perforated by bullets, and his horse shot under him. 
 Exhausted by incessant activity, and subsequently exposed to hardships and priva- 
 tions until near the middle of December, Colonel Douglas suffered the loss of his 
 voice, and was obliged, though very reluctant, to relinquish the military service of 
 his country, and to return to his family at Northford, where he had previously 
 purchased a farm, and where he peacefully departed this life. May 28th, 1777, 
 at the early age of thirty-five years. He contributed generously to the expense 
 of enlisting and equipping his regiment, literally sacrificed life and fortune for his 
 country, was a brave and faithful officer, and also a true patriot and Christian. His 
 brother John also served with great distinction in the patriot army, was commis- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. ■ 345 
 
 sioned Lieutenant-Colonel early in the struggle, then rose to the rank of Colonel, 
 and finally attained the grade of General. 
 
 Colonel William Douglas married, July 5th, 1767, Hannah, daughter of Stephen 
 Mansfield of New Haven, and sister of Colonel Jared Mansfield, Superintendent of 
 the U. S. Military Academ)^ at West Point, and subsequently Surveyor-General of 
 the United States. By her he had four children, of whom William, the second, was 
 born February 23d, 1770. 
 
 Captain William Douglas was born in New Haven, and, like his brave and 
 partiotic father, early entered into the service of his country. A history of the times 
 records that '' while yet a lad of eleven years old, he was sent by his uncle. General 
 Douglas, then of Plainfield, to Colonel Ledyard, at Groton, the day before the awful 
 massacre, and defying all the dangers of the way, and compelled to swim his horse 
 across the Thames, near New London, he safely delivered his dispatches. No doubt 
 had the War of Independence continued a little longer, this young hero would have 
 performed deeds fitting his name and lineage ; but peace being soon after declared, 
 he retired to Northford, and, devoting himself to the occupation of a farmer, died 
 peacefully and respected, September 14th, 1823, at the age of fifty-three years." He 
 also served as captain of militia in the war of 1812. He married, January 28th, 
 1797, Sarah, daughter of Constant Kirtland of Wallingford. by whom he had eight 
 children, of whom Benjamin Douglas was the youngest. 
 
 The domestic training of young Douglas was such as ordinarily falls to the lot 
 of scions of the substantial New England yeomanry. He worked on the farm 
 throughout the months usually devoted to agriculture, and studied in the local schools 
 during the winter. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the trade of a machinist 
 in Middletown, Conn., and in 1836 entered into the employment of Guild & Douglas 
 at that place. His brother William had established the business in 1832. Its 
 specialty was the manufacture of iron " pumps. In 1839 Benjamin and his brother 
 purchased the entire interest in the business, formed a copartnership, and conducted 
 their affairs under the style and title of W. & B. Douglas. Their manufactures for 
 the next three years were those of an ordinary foundry and machine shop. They 
 supplied steam-engines and other fabrications to the neighboring factories. But in 
 1842 they invented the famous revolving-stand cistern-pump, and conceived the idea 
 of making pumps their staple article of production and commerce. Since the recep- 
 tion of their first patent, perpetual improvements in structure and style have been 
 effected, and over a hundred additional patents obtained to cover these developments 
 and kindred constructions. In Europe also their rights are protected by similar 
 issues. Old prejudices in favor of ancient instruments they soon discovered could 
 only be overcome by persistent energy ; and Benjamin Douglas went from dealer 
 
346 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 to dealer, with a pump under his arm, explained its superiorities, and demonstrated 
 the propriety of adopting it. Success came slowly, notwithstanding his determined 
 efforts. Not more than three hundred pumps were sold in the first twelve months. 
 After that the demand rose rapidly. Popular appreciation was fairly won, and wide 
 reputation and lucrative sales followed. 
 
 In 1858 William Douglas, the senior partner, died, and the entire control of 
 the business devolved upon the survivor. Up to that time William had devoted 
 himself principally to the manufacturing department, in which his genius and experi- 
 ence were of great service, while Benjamin, with equal aptitude, had bestowed his 
 forces mainly upon the mercantile branch. In 1859 the entire concern was reorgan- 
 ized, under a charter conferred by special act of the Legislature, as a stock company 
 —which retains the old firm title of W. & B. Douglas — of which Benjamin Douglas 
 is president; and his sons, John M. Douglas, the secretary and treasurer, and Edward, 
 assistant-secretary. Joseph W., a son of William Douglas, is superintendent of the 
 manufacturing department. Continuous prosperity is, and always has been, a dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic of the company, and is in strict harmony with the mechanical 
 skill and wise provision of general need that are essential factors of its success. 
 Not less conducive to the confidence universally felt in their work is the conscientious 
 integrity invariably incorporated with it. Pumps, like the men that operate them, 
 have consciences. The difference between the two is that pumps possess the con- 
 sciences of their makers ; the users of pumps only possess their own. The little one- 
 storied wooden shop, 60x40 feet, in which the manufacture commenced, and in which 
 also it continues, is in marked contrast with the numerous massive and roomy build- 
 ings that have since been added to it. Forty-eight years of ceaseless industry have 
 raised them from the foundation, and furnished them with every usable mechanical 
 aid. The foundry is the largest in Connecticut, the furnace of the most approved con- 
 struction, and the castings remarkable for their excellence. Twelve hundred, or more, 
 styles and sizes of pumping apparatus attest the hydraulic knowledge of the pro- 
 prietors, and minister to all varieties of civilized wants. Pumps for artesian and for 
 ordinary wells, force-pumps for boilers and for manufacturing needs, chain-pumps, fire- 
 engines, garden-engines, rotary pumps for the elevation of liquor, air pumps, gas 
 pumps, and many other kinds of pumps ; pumps made of iron, of brass, of copper, 
 of composite metal, are supplied in quantities and on briefest notice. Perhaps the 
 most useful — certainly one of the most useful — of them all, is the improved tube, or 
 drive-well, apparatus. In one hour the tube may be forced into the earth in almost 
 any section of the country, the pump connected with it, and an ample outflow of 
 water assured. Settlers in the Western States and Territories prize it supremely; 
 exploring expeditions and marching mihtary detachments find it exceedingly useful. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 347 
 
 The English army utilized it in the Abyssinian campaign, and puts its virtues to the 
 -test in other regions of the globe. Wherever the hydraulic machines of W. & B. 
 Douglas are exhibited they carry off the highest prizes for utility and worth. The 
 first medals were awarded to them at the Paris Exposition in 1867; in 1873 they 
 received the Grand Medal of Progress, the highest honor, at Vienna; in 1876 at 
 Philadelphia, and again in 1878 at Paris they bore off the palm against all com- 
 petitors. 
 
 The demand for the Douglas hydraulic machines is coextensive with modern 
 civilization. Not only throughout the United States, but in the British Provinces, 
 in South America cne Sandwich Islands, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa do 
 they find a ready market, and hold their pre-eminence as prime favorites. 
 
 Benjamin Douglas has repeatedly represented his town in the General Assembly 
 of the State; from 1849 to 1855 he was Mayor of the city of Middletown ; in 
 i860 he was chosen as one of the Presidential electors of Connecticut, and cast 
 his vote for Abraham Lincoln ; in 1861 — 2 he was Lieutenant-Governor of the 
 State. He has been President of the First National Bank of Middletown since 1864, 
 the year of its organization ; he is also President of the Farmers and Mechanics' 
 Savings Bank in Middletown ; is also one of the Trustees of the Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity, which is located in his own city. Like all, or nearly all, his American 
 ancestors, he is a member of the Congregational Church, with which he identified 
 himself in early life, and is a generous supporter of the South Church in Middle- 
 town. A model business man, by his intelligence and enlightened supervision of 
 the concern in all its details and relations, he has expanded its proportions to 
 their present enormous size. Sagacious, experienced and resolute, but gentle withal, 
 and devoid of ostentation, he is admirably qualified for his post, and also for 
 judicious ministration to the welfare of the Company's employees, and to the 
 needs of society, whether local, national, or universal. 
 
 Mr. Douglas was married, April 3, 1838, to Mary Adaline, daughter of Elias 
 Parker, of Middletown, and niece of the late Major-General Joseph K. F. Mans- 
 field, U. S. A., who was slain at the battle of Antietam, while in command of 
 the Eleventh Corps. Of the six children which have been the fruit of their union, 
 three, viz.: John Mansfield, the eldest, Benjamin the fifth, and Edward, the youngest, 
 are connected in important managerial capacities with the W. & B. Douglas 
 Company. 
 
348 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C YC LO P.-ED I A . 
 
 »1&»YE, ELISHA BOWNE, M.D., of Middletown, Conn. Bora November 7, 
 1 81 2, in Sandwich, Mass. His father, Braddock Nye, was a captain in the 
 mercantile marine, and a native of the same town. His mother, nee 
 ^ Martha Bowne, was the daughter of Asa Bowne, and a native of the old 
 Bay State. 
 
 At the age of five years, young Nye removed with his parents from Sandwich, 
 Mass., to Middletown, Conn., where his father and mother both died. His primary 
 education was received in a private school at Middletown, under the tuition of Elijah 
 Garfield; his preparation for college was completed at Wilbraham, Mass., under the 
 supervision of Professor William C. Larrabee ; his collegiate education was obtained 
 in the Wesleyan University at Middletown, which he entered in 1831, and from 
 which he graduated as A.B., in 1835, electing the healing art for the exercise of his 
 cultured energies. Mr. Nye then began the study of the theory and practice of medi- 
 cine, at Middletown, in the office of Dr. Thomas Minor; continued it under the 
 tuition, and in the office of Drs. Eli and N. B. Ives at New Haven, and also 
 attended the regular courses of instruction in the Medical Department of Yale 
 University. 
 
 Having received his degree of M.D. from the Yale Medical College, in 1837 he 
 commenced the practice of medicine at Moodus, Conn., and remained their until 
 1 85 1, when he removed to Middletown. Dr. Nye has not only distinguished himself 
 as a medical practitioner, but has also acquired reputation as a contributor to local 
 and professional journals. While a resident of Moodus, a village in the town of 
 East Haddam, Conn., he prepared, and read before the Middlesex County Lyceum, 
 a paper on the "Moodus Noises": — earthquakes on a minor scale, which from time 
 immemorial have occurred in that locality. The same paper, slightly modified, and 
 with such additional observations as his residence in Moodus enabled him to make, 
 afterward appeared in a monthly journal, published under the auspices of his Alma 
 Mater. Some years later it was republished in a New York monthly. To the 
 local press he has contributed a paper on " Quackery," read at a meeting of the 
 Middlesex County Medical Society, and published by request of that body. He has 
 also contributed articles to the annual publications of the Connecticut Medical 
 Society, entitled Specifics; A Memoir of Datus Williams, M.D., of East Haddam.; 
 A Memoir of Wm. B. Casey, M.D., of Middletown; — a pamphlet edition of which 
 was subsequently printed by Dr. Casey's surviving friends ; — and A Memoir of B. D. 
 Maguire, M.D,, of Middletown. 
 
 When a branch of the Phi Beta Kappa Society was established in Wesleyan 
 University some time after Dr. Nye's graduation, he was honored by election into 
 its membership. His interest in public education has only kept pace with his 
 
ml 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 349 
 
 advancing years and knowledge. For ten or more years he served as member of the 
 local Board of Education. Nor has he been unmindful of civic claims, but has served 
 for upwards of five years as one of the Board of Aldermen. He now holds the 
 position of Trustee of the Connecticut Hospital, Trustee of the Middletown 
 Savings Bank, and Director of the Middletown National Bank. He has been a 
 member of the State Medical Society since his graduation ; is a member of the County 
 Medical Society, of which he has filled the Presidential chair, and has also served 
 as Vice-President of the Connecticut Medical Society. 
 
 Dr. Nye was married on the 25th of November, 1837, to Caroline, daughter of 
 Captain Daniel Hubbard, of Middletown, who was in the mercantile marine, trading 
 to the West Indies, and who died while on his passage to those islands, in May, 
 1831. Mrs. Nye died August 24th, 1877, having borne her husband six children, of 
 whom two survive their mother. 
 
 'OYT, OLIVER, of Stamford, Conn. Born in Stamford, August 23d, 1823. 
 His father, Joseph Hoyt, was a farmer by occupation, and a native of 
 Fairfield County, in the same State: — as was also his grandfather, Joseph 
 Hoyt. His mother's maiden name was Maria Blachley Weed, daughter 
 of Eliphalet, and Martha (Hoyt) Weed, of Connecticut. The home of the family 
 was at Stamford, on Noroton Hill, where his mother died on the 22d of Septem- 
 ber, 1854, at the age of 64; and where his father also passed away on the 25th 
 of December following, aged 68 years. 
 
 In the Genealogical History of the Hoyt, Haight, and Hight Families is found a 
 full and admirable record of all that is positively known concerning the ancestry of 
 Mr. Hoyt, and of the hundreds and even thousands of American citizens who bear 
 the same patronymic. It is a laborious and invaluable compilation, and, in common 
 with multitudes of volumes of the same character, sheds unusual light on the. great 
 questions of heredity and the relation of moral conduct to material prosperity. The 
 future biologist is sure to regard them with profound respect. In the absence of 
 accurate genealogical registers, it becomes a mere matter of conjecture from what 
 European nation or family any individual has sprung. An antique crest, disinterred 
 from the mouldy vaults of the Heralds' College in London, may afford a guiding 
 
350 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 clue. When George Hoyte, of Dublin, Ireland, entered upon his official career 
 as High Sheriff of Dublin County, he caused the records of the Heralds' College 
 to be searched for the knowledge of his progenitors and their armorial bearings, 
 and obtained the following return: — "The surname of Hoyte or Hoite, an antient 
 and respectable Family descended from Germany, bear for Arms : Field Azure a 
 Lion Rampant Or, Between three Fleur de lis Argent. Crest on Helmet and 
 Wreath of its colour a Lion Passant Gule, holding in his Dexter Paw a Fleur de 
 lis Argent. Motto, ' Vincit qui Patititr' '' — He conquers .who perseveres. The Rev. 
 William Hoyte, son of High SheriflF Hoyte, and former Rector of Ballyraaglassin, 
 Batterstown, Ireland, regards this return as indicative of descent from the Von 
 Hoytes of Germany, and derives the name of Hoyt, or Hoyte, from the German 
 word " Heute" — to-day : — an etymon significant of alertness and promptitude in those 
 on whom it was first conferred. He also thinks — as does the Rev. F. J. Hoyte of 
 England, that the ancestors of the American Hoyts were of that branch of the 
 original stock which was planted in Somersetshire, England, and of which physical 
 vigor has always been a \Qrj prominent characteristic. Traditions still linger among 
 the old people of Curry Rivel in that county, about the love of the Hoytes for 
 ball-playing, cudgel-playing, boxing, wrestling, and all athletic sports ; and stories of 
 their strength and endurance are yet current in the parish. The force and enter- 
 prise nurtured by these physical exercises doubtless prepared the way for the emi- 
 gration of some of their descendants to the New Atlantis. Among these may 
 have been John Hoyt, one the original settlers of Salisbury, Mass., and Simon Hoyt, 
 of Charlestown, Mass., who probably sailed in the same vessel, the Abigail, with 
 Governor John Endicott, from England, in 1628 — arriving at Salem, September 6th, 
 of the same year. Other descendants of the Somerset Hoytes are scattered over 
 the world, and spell their family name, as in the United States, in from thirty to 
 forty different ways. Hoyte is the form almost universally employed in Great Britain, 
 and Hoyt in America. 
 
 Simon Hoyte, who with the Spragues and others settled Mishawurn or Charles- 
 town, on the north bank of the Charles River, Mass., in 1628 or 1629, is the fore- 
 father of the Stamford family, and consequently of Oliver Hoyt. He removed to 
 Dorchester in 1630, and from thence to Scituate, Mass., in 1634 or 1635. There 
 " Symeon Hayte" and his wife joined the church, on April 19th, 1635. The clerk 
 who inscribed his name on the register may have been the same careless orthog- 
 rapher who recorded that "Goodman Haite's" house was built in that town some 
 time prior to October, i|^6. Simon Hoyt seems to have been as variable in his local 
 attachments as in the spelling of his surname; for in 1639 he migrated from Scituate, 
 Mass., to Windsor, Conn. Stiles, in his History of Windsor, says that he was probably 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 351 
 
 "in \\\t first, or one of the first companies" of settlers. His name appears in 1640 
 in the first book of land records, as the owner of 160 acres, situated at some distance 
 from the other settlers. Owing to his location he and his family were " freed from 
 watch and ward" in 1640; inasmuch as they had enough to do to protect them- 
 selves against the Indians, without partaking in the guard of those who lived in the 
 village. Buying and selling, farming and fighting, like his heroic associates, Simon 
 Hoyt continued in Windsor until 1646, when he sold his real estate, and removed 
 to Fairfield, from whence, in or about 1649, he effected his final earthly migration 
 to Stamford, where, according to the town records, he died September ist, 1657. 
 Simon Hoyt was doubtless born before a.d. 1600, perhaps in 1595. If so, he 
 must have been thirty or thirty-five years old at the epoch of his immigration, and 
 from sixty to sixty-five at the time of his death. The old Teutonic spirit was ever 
 restless and daring in the hardy and courageous pioneer, and gladly shared in the 
 sufferings of the English colonists, who, in peril of pestilence and famine, were com- 
 pelled to live on " clams, and muscles, and fish ;" and who, " all hands, of men, women, 
 ■ and children, wrought at digging and building," until a fort was completed for their 
 defence against the hostile and conspiring Indians. His militant and soldierly aptitude 
 were transmitted to his descendants, of whom many have won enviable reputations 
 in wars with the Indians, British, and Secessionists. He was the father of ten chil- 
 dren, of whom the sixth, Samuel, was born about a.d. 1643. Samuel Hoyt first 
 married Hannah, .daughter of John Holly, November i6th, 1671. The Stamford 
 records of 1667 show that in that year he "gave offence to the stern Puritans by 
 wrestling, or throwing stones into the swamp outside the meeting-house on Sunday." 
 Afterward he grew into favor with God and man, and was a " deputy for Stamford 
 in the General Assembly, in 1689, '90, '92, '93, '97, '99, 1703, '4, and 1716." In "the 
 eleven sessions when his name was recorded as a deputy, in the first four it was 
 given Hoyte, the next one Hoit, and the last six Hoyt." He was also Ensign 
 of " the train-band in the town of Stamford," and one of the Justices of the Peace 
 for Fairfield County. As early as 1702 he was called Deacon, and his name ap- 
 peared as Hait, in which i&xii\ it is appended to his last will and testament in 
 "the beginning of the year 1714." 
 
 Samuel Hoyt was the father of eight children, of whom Samuel, the eldest, 
 was born July, 27th, 1673. Samuel Hoyt, Jr., married Mercy Holmes, the widow of 
 John Holmes, Wd the daughter of Captain Jonathan Bell, on July 13th, 1704. He 
 lived in Stamford, and died December 9th, 171 1, leaving property on Noroton Hill 
 and elsewhere to his four children, of whom Samuel was the third. 
 
 Samuel Hoyt, or, as he was called Sergeant Samuel Hait, was born March 17th, 
 1709, and married Mary, daughter of Samuel Blachley of Stamford, May 29th, 1735. 
 
3S2 BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^E D I A . 
 
 He lived in Stamford, was an excellent citizen and member of the church, and 
 died about 1 784. He was the father of seven children, of whom Joseph, the third, 
 was born December 12th, 1739, and married Sarah Weed, of Middlesex, now 
 Darien, June 24th, 1773. He resided on Noroton Hill, and died very suddenly, of 
 apoplexy, December 24th or 25th, 1799, leaving four children, of whom Joseph, the 
 youngest, was born February 19th, 1787. He married Maria B. Weed on the 31st 
 of January, 18 13, and became the father of ten children, of whom Oliver is the 
 sixth. 
 
 The early literary education of Mr. Hoyt was received in the excellent public 
 schools of Stamford, his native town. At the age of sixteen, he connected himself 
 with the Methodist Episcopal Church and was soon distinguished as a zealous 
 working member. Apprenticed to Nathaniel Bouton, of Darien, he carried into 
 his new business relations all the characteristic energy of his family, and thoroughly 
 mastered the art of tanning leather. Choosing the pursuits of the merchant rather 
 than those of the manufacturer, in 1844 he established himself in the wholesale 
 leather trade in Frankfort Street, New York, and prosecuted the business alone until 
 1846, when he entered into copartnership with his brother William, under the style 
 and title of W. & O. Hoyt. The warehouse of the new firm was located at No. 
 17 Ferry Street, and continued there until 1849. ^ '^^w firm was then organized, 
 under the name of Hoyt Bros., and the business was removed to Spruce Street, where 
 it remained until 1870, when it was again removed to No. 72 Gold Street, in which 
 place it still continues. In point of commercial success, honorable reputation, and 
 strict integrity the Hoyt Bros, have no superior. Their business is one of the most 
 extensive of the kind in the metropolis, and gives employment to about one thou- 
 sand men, as clerks, operatives, teamsters, etc., in connection with the tanneries con- 
 trolled by the firm in New York, Pennsylvania, and other States. Hemlock-tanned 
 sole leather is the specialty in which they deal. 
 
 Few, if any, chapters in the industrial history of New York and of the United 
 States challenge greater attention than that devoted to the manufacture and sale 
 of leather — now one of the principal industries of the world. In 1766, a society 
 established in New York, " for the Promotion of Arts, Agriculture, and Economy," 
 offered a premium of " /20 for tanning the best 20 sides of bend leather during 
 the year 1766, ^10 for the best 50 hides of sole leather, £10 for the best pair 
 of women's shoes made of 'stuff' with soles of leather tanned in the province." In 
 1775 hides and skins to the number of 13,927 were imported into New York. From 
 these humble beginnings the growth of the leather interest has been marvellously 
 rapid. Saying nothing about leather, curried ; leather, morocco, tanned and curried ; 
 or leather, dressed skins ; the tanning of leather alone was carried on, in the year 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 353 
 
 1870, at 624 establishments within the State of New York; giving employment to 
 6064 hands, and requiring an active capital of $13,286,940. Over two and a half 
 millions of dollars were annually paid in wages. The cost of materials amounted to 
 $19,118,186, and the value of the manufactured products reached the enormous sum 
 of $26,988,320. 
 
 The Census Report of 1870 states that 8,788,572 hides were tanned in this 
 country, and also 9,664,148 skins. In that year the number of hands employed 
 in the manufacture of leather was 30,811; of boots and shoes, 171,127; of other 
 leather articles, 19,000 — making a grand total of 220,938 operatives. When the 
 returns of the U. S. Census of 1880 are classified, tabulated, and published, the 
 development of the leather interest will undoubtedly be found to have been on 
 the same grand scale with that of its history from the Revolution up to 1870. 
 The imports of hides, and skins other than furs, for nine months ending March 
 31st, 1880, were valued at $21,727,201. For the month of March, 1880, they 
 were valued at $3,364,089. The exports of leather, and of articles manufactured 
 of leather, for the nine months ending March 31st, 1880, reached' the value of 
 $6,259,841. Exceeding in numbers all other artisans except those who labor on 
 wood ; creating higher values than any other industrial class except the farmers 
 and the railroad employees ; the leather workers of the land give the best kind of 
 impetus to pastoral and agricultural occupations, and powerfully contribute to the 
 prosperity and grandeur of the Republic. In this mighty hive of busy and benefi- 
 cent toilers, Mr. Hoyt is one of the leaders ; and by his stern integrity, disci- 
 plined business abilities, unfailing promptitude in meeting every pecuniary obliga- 
 tion, and unenvied success, has made good his title as one of the most influential 
 and honored of the leaders. 
 
 In banking and insurance, Mr. Hoyt has long borne an active and prominent 
 part. Of the Park Bank, New York, he has been one of the directors since 
 1854 ; and has also served as director of the Citizens' Savings Bank of Stamford 
 since its organization. He has been directorially associated with the Home Fire 
 Insurance Company of New York, for a number of years, and sustains the same 
 official relation to the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company. 
 
 In 1876 he was one of the Presidential Electors for Grant. In politics he is 
 identified with the Republican party, but did not accept any official political 
 position until 1877, when he was elected to the Senate of Connecticut from his 
 own district. During a part of his term of service he officiated as President of 
 the Senate, pro tern., and also served on several important committees, including 
 that on Temperance, which consisted jointly of members of both houses. In 1879 
 he was Chairman of the Committee on Humane Institutions, and also of the Com- 
 23 
 
354 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 mittee on Federal Relations. His personal influence in the passage of a number of 
 important bills, while in the Senate, was powerfully wielded. The nomination for the 
 Gubernatorial chair was wisely tendered to him in 1879, but was declined under pres- 
 sure of business reasons. He has been a member of the Union League since 1870. 
 
 Worldly prosperity seems only to have intensified his zeal for the promotion of 
 religion and morality, the surest foundations of national greatness, and the strongest 
 bulwarks of national prosperity. After fourteen years' residence in the city of New 
 York, he returned to Stamford, and erected an elegant mansion within sight of the 
 ancestral homestead. Like the residences of his two brothers, J. B. and William, it 
 commands an extensive and beautiful view of Long Island Sound and of the village 
 of Stamford, and is the constant and highly appreciated resort of troops of friends. 
 The grounds are laid out with aesthetic skill, and the interior walls of the dwelling are 
 adorned by choice and valuable paintings. Yet is he more earnest and laborious in 
 building up the spiritual temple of the living God. For upwards of a quarter 
 of a century he has filled the office of Sunday-school Superintendent ; first in 
 New York from 1844 to 1857, and since the latter date to the present in Stamford. 
 The living stones supplied to the growing edifice, under such hands, are especially 
 valuable ; because consisting of the unfractured, plastic, promising souls of children 
 and youth. In the Centennial Celebration of the introduction of Methodism into this 
 country he took a prominent part. He was a member of the central committee, on 
 whom devolved the superintendency of the enterprise, and who managed it with such 
 consummate skill that it resulted in the contribution of eight millions of dollars to 
 the benevolent institutions of the church. 
 
 In the evangelization of home and foreign populations he is and has been no less 
 deeply interested, and holds the eminently honorable post of Vice-President of the Mis- 
 sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also Trustee and Treas- 
 urer of the Board of Education of the same church, which has aided no less than 600 
 needy students to obtain the preparation desired for the active duties of life within the 
 past eight years. Of the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., he is one of the 
 trustees; also President of the Board of Trustees, and Treasurer of the Centennial 
 Alumni Fund belonging to the institution. His purse has been largely and liber- 
 ally drawn upon to promote the efficiency of the college, which owes much of its 
 exalted reputation to his friendliness and generosity. The poor, the widow, and the 
 orphan, share in his munificence, and place him in the same category with benefac- 
 tors like the patriarch Job. With that great change in the ecclesiastical constitution 
 of his church, whereby laymen were admitted to equality of legislative power in the 
 quadrennial General Conference, he is identified as one of its most active and judi- 
 cious promoters. He served as lay delegate from the New York East Annual Con- 
 
c 
 
 t?-e. 
 
 < 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 355 
 
 ference to the Brooklyn General Conference of 1872, and also to the Baltimore 
 General Conference of 1876. In both assemblies he was a potent and valued 
 member. 
 
 When over five hundred members of the Hoyt family, — representing all de- 
 partments of professional and business life — assembled at Stamford, on the 21st and 
 2 2d of June, 1866, Oliver Hoyt was selected to preside in their meetings and 
 guide their deliberations. That delicate duty was discharged with marked fidelity 
 and skill, and in a spirit of kindly courtesy that left indelible impressions on the 
 minds and hearts of the participants. In local as well as general affairs his energy 
 and culture are apparent. President of the Board of Trustees of his own church 
 in Stamford, and President of the Board of Trustees of the Ferguson Library in 
 the same place, he has contributed liberally to increase the endowment of the 
 latter institution, which bids fair to become an important part in the educational 
 apparatus of the town. It was created by the bequest of $10,000 for that pur- 
 pose by the late John D. Ferguson, was chartered in 1880, and is further to be 
 enlarged and strengthened by pecuniary donations. 
 
 Oliver Hoyt was married on the 19th of October, 1852, to Maria, daughter 
 of John Barney Corse, of New York, by whom he is the father of eight children, 
 of whom five are now living. 
 
 »VES, ELI, M.D., of New Haven. Born in New Haven, February 7th, 1779; 
 the son of Levi Ives, M.D., and of Lydia (Augur) Ives, his wife. His father 
 was a physician of rare qualifications, and of large practice in his native 
 city. He also served as surgeon in the Continental army for several years, 
 and in that capacity was present with General Montgomery at Quebec. He died 
 at New Haven in 1826 at the mature age of seventy-four. The common ancestor 
 of this branch of the Ives family was William Ives, a man of English blood, and 
 one of the original settlers of New Haven. 
 
 Naturally studious and fond of learning, young Ives acquired his preparation for 
 college partly by his own unaided exertions, and partly under the tuition of the Rev. 
 A. R. Robbins, of Norfolk, Conn. He entered Yale College in 1795, and graduated 
 therefrom, in due course, at the age of twenty years, in the same class with Professor 
 Moses Stuart, of Andover, and Professor James L. Kingsley. For two years after 
 graduation he was rector of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven. De- 
 clining the offer of a tutorship in^JYale College, in order that] he might devote 
 
}S6 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.P.D I A. 
 
 himself to the medical profession, he first studied the theory and practice of medicine 
 in his father's office, and also under the tuition of Dr. .Eneas Monson, who was a 
 very learned man in botanical and chemical science as related to the materia medica. 
 He afterward attended the medical lectures of Drs. Rush and Wooster, in Philadel- 
 phia. At the termination of his rectorship, in 1801, he began professional practice 
 in his native city, and with such marked ability and enthusiasm that he soon 
 obtained a very large practice, and achieved great success in it. 
 
 In the estimation of the Rev. W. S. Dutton, D.D., from whose address at the 
 funeral of Dr. Ives we have gathered the facts of his hfe, the most important service 
 that the latter rendered to medical science and practice was his agency in originating 
 and sustaining the medical department of Yale College. This was organized in 18 13 
 by the appointment of five piofessors, of whom Dr. Ives was one. Though nominally 
 Associate- Professor of Materia Medica and Botany, he wholly performed the active 
 duties of professor, and continued in this department for sixteen years ; and then, in 
 1829, on the decease of Professor Nathan Smith, was transferred to the department 
 of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. In this he remained until 1852, when, on 
 account of age and infirmity, he resigned. During the thirty-nine years of his active 
 professional life, about fifteen hundred students received their medical education in 
 part from him. 
 
 As a medical lecturer, the merit of Dr. Ives inhered in the matter of his 
 lectures. That was invariably excellent, and conveyed vast funds of information, 
 while it was no less thorough and accurate. He was a lover of all truth, a general 
 student and scholar who recognized the common bond which connects all sciences 
 and all arts and all knowledge. To the promotion of scientific agriculture and 
 horticulture, he gave much time and energy, was deeply interested in the Sheffield 
 Scientific School, in the Horticultural Society, and also in the Pomological Society, 
 of both of which he was president. He did much by personal labor and expenditure 
 to establish a Botanical Garden in connection with the Medical Collep-e His 
 scientific attainments were acknowledged in the bestowment of many diplomas and 
 degrees of honor from British and Continental scientific institutions and societies, 
 which, with characteristic modesty, he refused to attach to his name. 
 
 As a physician. Dr. Ives possessed remarkable insight, a comprehensive and 
 tenacious memory, an extensive and thorough knowledge of materia medica, an 
 intimate acquaintance with medical and scientific books, remarkable aptitude for 
 wisely and independently adapting his remedies to the case in hand, keen and 
 minute power of diagnostication, and extraordinary boldness and energy when 
 desperate exigencies demanded it. Fair, upright, and honorable, he was further 
 characterized by genial and generous interest in other, and particularly in younger, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCVCLOPJEDIA. 357 
 
 physicians. Though no friend to quackery, empiricism, or charlatanry, he was a 
 decided friend and promoter of progress in medical science and practice, which he 
 sought both by individual and associated effort. He was forward in forming the 
 New Haven Medical Association, was an active friend of the State Medical 
 Society, and of the National Medical Society, which, in his old age, chose him for 
 its presiding officer. 
 
 Dr. Ives was not less prominent as an active Christian than as a medical 
 practitioner. He united with the North Congregationalist Church at New Haven, 
 in September, 1808, at the age of twenty-five — thus exemplifying an uncommon 
 conscientious individuality. He was a very honest and righteous man, preferring to 
 suffer rather than to commit wrong. Humane and catholic, he was an abolitionist, 
 in the true sense of the word, during the great contest with slavery. Liberal to all 
 ecclesiastical and benevolent enterprises, he also identified himself with the total 
 abstinence reformation, and did much to press it forward. With a thorough and 
 rich Christian experience, he was an instructive worker in all church assemblies, and 
 fully rounded out a life that was beneficent and beautiful because it reflected the 
 moral glories of the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 He married, September 17th, 1805, Maria, daughter of Deacon Nathan and Mary 
 (Phelps) Beers, by whom he was blessed with five children, of whom two survive 
 him. He died October 8th, 1861. 
 
 — ^w^ , »ATROUS, GEORGE H., lawyer, of New Haven. Born in Susquehanna 
 ^^^Lf- County, Pennsylvania, April 26th, 1829. His father, Ansel Watrous, was 
 a farmer, and a native of Connecticut. His grandfather, Benjamin 
 ^^ Watrous, was also a farmer, and of English ancestry. The mother of 
 
 George H. Watrous, nee Dennis Luce, was the daughter of Israel Luce, of Schoharie 
 County, New York. His early education was obtained in the excellent common 
 schools of Broome County, New York, and was followed by a thorough course of 
 academic instruction in institutions situated at Binghamton and Homer, in the 
 same State. Thence he matriculated at Madison University, New York, but left it 
 in order to enter Yale College in 1851. Two years later, in 1853, he graduated as 
 A.B., and subsequently took the degree of A.M. 
 
 The energy, aptitude, and versatility of his character became more apparent 
 immediately after graduation. Deciding on the practice of law as the pursuit of 
 future life, he entered the law office of Hon. Henry B. Harrison, at New Haven, pur- 
 
3s8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 sued the prescribed course of study in the Yale Law School, and at the same time 
 taught Greek in Gen. Russell's Collegiate Institute, in New Haven. Admitted to 
 the bar in September, 1855, he soon commenced individual practice in the same 
 city, but two years afterward — in 1857 — formed a co-partnership with Governor 
 Button, under the style and title of Dutton & Watrous. This association continued 
 until 1 86 1, when the senior partner was made a Judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Connecticut. Mr. Watrous has since practised alone. 
 
 In 1864 he was elected a Representative to the lower house of the State Legis- 
 lature from New Haven, by the Republican party; and, while a member of that 
 body, served on the Judiciary Committee and also in the Committee on Education 
 with signal efficiency. His services have further been called into requisition by the 
 public as Vice-President of the National Savings Bank, Director of the City 
 National Bank, of the New Haven Water Power Company, and of several horse 
 railroads in the city of New Haven. So ably and satisfactorily had he discharged 
 the duties imposed by these trusts up to February, 1879, that in that month he was 
 elected President of the New York & New Haven R. R. He assumed the powers 
 and responsibilities of his new office on the first day of the following month. 
 
 Mr. Watrous holds a very prominent position in the State of Connecticut, and 
 conducts a large and lucrative practice, both in civil and criminal courts. His repu- 
 tation and influence remind observers of the words of that distinguished ornament 
 of the bar, the Hon. David Daggett, when he wrote : " The practice of the law, 
 when conducted by men of probity and talents, is an elevated employment and 
 entitled to high consideration. No man can justly claim a more proud eminence 
 than a lawyer in the first rank of his profession. To attain this great earthly dis- 
 tinction is worthy the ambition of a noble mind." Neither in the case of Mr. 
 Daggett, nor in that of Mr. Watrous, has such eminence been reached without 
 labor, patience, perseverance, industry, a considerable share of talent, and the faculty 
 of communicating ideas with some felicity. 
 
 The mind of Mr. Watrous is thoroughly embued with legal science, with the 
 knowledge of general and special jurisprudence, of supreme and subordinate law. 
 Reading, research, and reflection have made him a profound, learned, and accurate 
 lawyer ; and particularly in those branches of positive law related to his immediate 
 and onerous responsibilities. Intuitive, attentive, and thoroughly understanding human 
 nature, he knows how to touch the springs of action in judges, jurors, witnesses 
 and opposing counsel. With the reports of cases, and with all the practical details 
 of the profession, he is equally well acquainted. Fair, honorable, courteous o-entle- 
 manly, and exceedingly able, Mr. Watrous has controlled circumstances to a large 
 extent, and has certainly deserved and commanded remarkable success. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 359 
 
 He was married in May, 1857, to Harriet J. Dutton, who died in January, 1873 
 He was married the second time in January, 1874, to Lily M., daughter of the 
 Hon. Henry B. Graves, of Litchfield, Conn. 
 
 ^ 
 
 EACH, JOHN S., lawyer, of New Haven. Born in New Haven, July 23d, 
 1819. His father, John Beach, was a member of the legal profession; and 
 his mother, Martia (Curtis) Beach, was a daughter of Major Abijah B. 
 <^3' Curtis, of Newtown, Conn., — a soldier of the Revolutionary War. John 
 Beach, the first American ancestor of this branch of the Beach family, immigrated 
 from England, and settled at New Haven in 1643. He was the grandfather of Rev. 
 John Beach, who was born in 1700, graduated from Yale College in 1726, and died 
 at Newtown, Conn., in 1 782, in the fifty-seventh year of his ministry. The Rev. 
 John Beach was the grandfather of John Beach, (father of John S. Beach,) who died 
 in 1869, having been a member of the New Haven Bar for fifty-six years. 
 
 The preparatory education of Mr. John S. Beach was received at the Hopkins 
 Grammar School of New Haven, from which in 1835 he matriculated at Yale Col- 
 lege, where he graduated as A.B. in 1839. I"^ the year following he taught school 
 at Wilmington, Delaware ; then entered the Law School connected with Yale Col- 
 lege, and took the regular course of professional instruction ; at the same time being 
 a student in the office of Judge Samuel J. Hitchcock of New Haven. In 1843 he 
 was admitted to the Bar, and has since exclusively devoted himself to legal practice 
 He has never held nor sought any public official position. 
 
 He was married in 1847 to Rebecca, daughter of Dr. William Gibbon, of Wil- 
 mington, Delaware. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 AGON, LEONARD, D.D., LL.D., of New Haven. Bom at Detroit, Michi- 
 ^^« gan, February 19th, 1802. His father was a missionary to the Indians, 
 ^^ sent out by the Missionary Society of Connecticut, and the first settler of 
 
 the town of Tallmadge, Ohio. The son graduated at Yale College in 1820, 
 and spent the ensuing four years at the Andover Theological Seminary, whence he 
 graduated in 1824. In the earlier portion of the ensuing year he was called to 
 the pastorate of the Centre Congregational Church in New Haven, and was regu- 
 larly installed in that office in the month of March. From that epoch until 1866 
 a period of forty-one years, he discharged his ministerial duties with preeminent 
 ability, faithfulness, and success. 
 
 From 1866 to 1871 he was Acting Professor of Systematic Theology, and 
 since 1871 has been Lecturer on Church Polity and American Church History in 
 the Divinity School of Yale College. His lengthened residence at one of the 
 chief literary centres of the country, and the constant use of his powerful, disci- 
 plined, and trenchant pen, have raised him to the position of authoritative expositor 
 of the didactic theology of New England. In that department of authorship, he is, 
 perhaps, unrivalled in his own denomination. He is justly regarded as the champion 
 of Congregationalist church polity, and by his controversial writings has acquired 
 great renown as the best exponent of those who adhere most closely to the tra- 
 ditions and practices of the Puritan fathers. 
 
 Dr. Bacon is a very voluminous author, and has written an immense number 
 of occasional addresses and sermons. To different theological periodicals he has 
 been a constant and valuable contributor, and particularly to the Christian Spe- 
 tator and to the New Englander. He has also served as president of the 
 managing committee charged with the publication of both issues. His articles in 
 the New Englander were largely of politico-religious character, and severely 
 arraigned the national government for its course in relation to slavery. Of that 
 ablest and most influential of all American religious newspapers, the Independent, of 
 New York, he was, for some time, one of the editors, and is still one of its most 
 highly prized correspondents. Erudite, logical, and vigorous, both as writer and 
 speaker, his most conspicuous quality is an earnest severity, in which he makes 
 frequent use of telling irony and biting sarcasm. 
 
 Many of his occasional sermons and addresses have been published. In 1831 
 he issued an edition of the Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter, and in 
 1835 a second edition of the same collection. In 1839 appeared Thirteen Discourses 
 on the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Church in New Haven; in 1846 a 
 volume entitled Slavery Discussed ; and, some years after that, a Historical Discourse 
 at the old South Meeting-house, Worcester, September 22c/, 1863. Another useful pub- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL EN C Y C LO P^ D I A . 361 
 
 licatiori entitled A Manual for Young Church Members, iSmo, was given to the 
 church in 1833. The most useful and influential of all Dr. Bacon's many writ- 
 ings is doubtless The Genesis of the New England Churches, with illustrations, 
 published at New York in 1874. In it h-e shows that "the history of Protestant 
 Christianity in the United States of America is the history, not of a national 
 church, but of voluntary churches.'' He also points out how this history began, 
 and traces " the origin and development of the idea which generated the churches 
 of New England." Not alone the Congregational, but also the Baptist churches of 
 this country are constituted on the same platform of polity with the church which 
 came" in the Mayflower. Without caring to perform the wholly unnecessary labor 
 of consulting rare originals, he has made use of such works as Planbury's Histori- 
 cal Memorials, Dr. Alexander Young's Chrotiicles of the Pilgrims, and the Chroni- 
 cles of Massachusetts, Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Felt's Ecclesias- 
 tical History of New England, and the works of the Anglican, Strype. These, 
 and others of like character, he has digested into one of the most vigorous, touch- 
 ing, and thrilling contributions to Church History now extant ; and which is par- 
 ticularly valuable because of its admirable discriminations between " our Pilgrim 
 fathers'' and " our Puritan fathers." The difference between the two has been 
 unhistorically ignored by the majority of writers. " In the old world on the other 
 side of the ocean, the Puritan was a Nationalist, believing that a Christian nation 
 is a Christian church, and demanding that the Church of England should be 
 thoroughly reformed ; while the Pilgrim was a Separatist, not only from the 
 Anglican Prayer-book and Queen Elizabeth's episcopacy, but from all national 
 churches." Both were grievously persecuted, but the bitterest share of the persecution 
 fell to the ilot of the Pilgrims, between whom and the Puritans there was conten- 
 tion as earnest and sharp as between both and the ecclesiastico-political power which 
 oppressed them both. 
 
 " The Pilgrim wanted liberty for himself and his wife and little ones, and 
 for his brethren, to walk with God in a Christian life as the rules and motives 
 of such a life were revealed to him from God's Word. For that he went into 
 exile ; for that he crossed the ocean ; for that he made his home in a wilderness. 
 The Puritan's idea was not liberty, but right government in church and state — 
 such o-overnment as should not only permit him, but also compel other men to walk 
 in the right way." Of all these facts, so indispensable to the thorough understand- 
 ing of the march of events on this side the Atlantic, Dr. Bacon presents abundant 
 and irrefragable proof. While necessarily referring to the history of the colonization 
 of New England, and thus traversing to some extent the ground entirely covered 
 by the admirable works of Dr. Palfrey, his whole object is to tell "the story of an 
 
362 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 idea slowly making its way against prejudices, interests, and passions—a story of 
 faith and martyrdom, of heroic endeavor and heroic constancy. It includes only so 
 much of secular history as is involved in the history of the idea, and of the men 
 vkrhom it possessed, and who labored and suffered to make it a reality in the vv^orld 
 of fact." The author is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of his subject. His very 
 style wears the characteristics of the heroes of whom he writes. Plain but grand, 
 homely but attractive ; stern, massive, and resistless as the Ironsides who fought and 
 conquered at Marston Moor; Scriptural also, flashing with ideas, and never straying 
 in its march from the directest line to his immediate objective point. 
 
 ATLING, RICHARD JORDAN, of Hartford. Born on Manney's Neck, 
 five miles from Murfreesboro, Hertford County, North Carolina, near the 
 Virginia line, on the 12th of September, 181 8. His father, Jordan Gatling, 
 ^ was a poor boy, and a remarkably enterprising and ingenious man. He 
 first purchased eighty acres of land in the wild, unbroken forest near the Mcherrin 
 River. To these he added other purchases until he had acquired a compact estate 
 of twelve hundred acres of excellent land. Besides this, several other valuable tracts 
 of land, farms and plantations, together with about twenty slaves, were in his posses- 
 sion at the time of his death. Upright, thrifty, shrewd, and always profitably 
 employed, he was an adept in all trades, though never apprenticed to any.- Car- 
 penter, blacksmith, and inventor, he resembled a New England farmer much more 
 than a Southern planter. When past sixty years of age, in 1843-46, his recreation 
 consisted in wood-carving. Evenings and leisure hours were thus employed. Among 
 the products of his skill now preserved in the old Gatling mansion are seven elabo- 
 rately carved walking canes of dogwood and hickory, whose delicacy of execution 
 and minute accuracy of design and finish rival the deftest creations of Japanese 
 artists. They are covered with miniature serpents and other reptiles, fishes, raccoons, etc., 
 all perfectly life-like in shape, proportion, color, and all else — except size. " Most of 
 
'2^ 
 
 EHCRAVED FXFBESSLY FOR THE SCiEMLL RECORD 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 363 
 
 the figures have the head on one side of the staff and the tail on the opposite 
 side, as if they were coming through it. Some of the sticks are surmounted by a 
 human hand, delicately cut, grasping a snake's head, a round bar, or a scroll. One, 
 of a half-inch in diameter, and of the ordinary height of a walking cane, is com- 
 pletetely covered with poems, essays, names of philosophers, poets, warriors, and 
 sages, and contains five hundred and ten words of thirty-six hundred and ninety- 
 three letters, all in clearly cut Roman text, similar to print." He also executed 
 a remarkably ingenious monogram, consisting of the letters J-O-R-D-A-N, in 
 1835. It would do honor to the genius of the most gifted Parisian or Oriental 
 artist. 
 
 His wonderful ability as a mechanic and artist was not wholly exercised upon 
 objects of quaint curiosity, but in the invention of useful machines. In one apart- 
 ment of his house are preserved " the original models of the first machine ever 
 invented and patented in the United States for opening the ridge and sowing and 
 covering cotton seed," also of one for " chopping out " cotton. These were patented 
 upward of forty years ago in his own name. The extraordinary mechanical gifts 
 and aptitudes of Jordan Gatling seem to have been organized in his children, nearly 
 all of whom have displayed his peculiar characteristics. 
 
 The wife of Jordan, and the mother of Richard Jordan Gatling, nee Mary 
 Barnes, " was a most estimable woman, very charitable, deeply pious, and an angel 
 of mercy and relief to the entire neighborhood." Of her seven children, only three 
 survive; namely, James Henry, Richard Jordan, and William J. James H. is also 
 the patentee of several valuable inventions, including " a machine which cuts cotton- 
 stalks into bits as it is driven rapidly over the field between the rows." He and 
 his brother, Richard J., "the modern Vulcan," are striking illustrations of the law 
 of heredity — a law that has been exemplified by numberless Southern politicians, 
 statesmen, diplomatists, and soldiers ; but very rarely by leaders in new advances in 
 the useful arts. The . old slave system of society, from the days of ancient Sparta 
 until now, has been eminently unfavorable to the arts and sciences; while that of 
 equal rights before the law, from the brilliant era of the Athenian Pericles to the 
 present, has always fostered inventive genius, artistic gifts, and poetic endowments. 
 Exceptions only prove the rule. The Catlings, and particularly Richard Jordan 
 Gatling, are the most notable exceptions to the rule. His judicious use of the divine 
 gift of genius has developed him into one of the most extraordinary of "self-made" 
 
 men. 
 
 His early education was received in the local common schools. From thence he 
 entered the office of Lewis M. Cooper, of Murfreesboro, by whom he was employed 
 
3^4 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 as an amanuensis for about a year. At the age of nineteen he was the teacher of one 
 of the "old field schools"— so called because generally located in untilled corners of 
 plantations. Twelve months afterward he commenced business as a country merchant, 
 near Frazier's Cross Roads, in Hertford County, and continued therein for several 
 years. The processes and needs of the staple culture in that section of the country 
 stimulated his powers of invention. He produced and patented a seed-sowing 
 machine, which subsequently found ready sale throughout the North-west as a wheat- 
 drill. In the twenty-first year of his age, he invented a screw-propeller for steam 
 vessels, but his attempt to secure a patent for it was anticipated by a nearly simul- 
 taneous discoverer, who was a few days earlier in seeking the protection of the 
 United States Patent Office. After this, relinquishing his local business, he repaired 
 to St. Louis, and there served for a while as clerk in a dry- goods store. But 
 more congenial occupation soon demanded his entire time and attention. His 
 wheat-drills won so much favor, and commanded such ready sale, that he found it 
 necessary for some years to devote himself to their improvement and disposal. 
 
 Many-sided and variously endowed, Mr. Gatling, in 1849, began attendance upon 
 the usual courses of lectures at the Indiana Medical College, and at the Ohio Medi- 
 cal College. Preparatory studies completed, he received his diploma as a physician, 
 and settled in the city of Indianapolis. The more manageable qualities and rela- 
 tions of pure matter, however, soon proved to be more to his taste than those of 
 the mysterious principle of animal life, and its manifestations in the human organ- 
 ism. Real estate speculations and railway enterprises were far more profitable than 
 the practice of medicine, and more in harmony with his special instincts and abili- 
 ties. In 1850 he received a diploma for the best wheat-drill from the Ohio State 
 Board of Agriculture, at its first annual fair, held at Cincinnati in 1850. "About 
 this time he invented a double-acting machine, which is still used in the West 
 for breaking hemp ; and he discovered the law of the transmutation of force by 
 the distribution of power from one main source, derived either from steam or water, 
 by means of compressed air in underground pipes, to be applied in driving numer- 
 ous small engines. For the last important discovery he was refused a patent, on 
 the ground that it was a discovery, and not an invention." 
 
 In 1857 Dr. Gatling invented a steam plough. But the greatest invention of his 
 life is the machine battery gun which bears his name. The idea of such an instru- 
 ment occurred to him in 1861, soon after the commencement of the Civil War. 
 It also occurred to a young man, named Charles (H..?) Palmer, employed in the 
 Holley Manufacturing Works at Lakeville, Conn., and also to others. Such events 
 are of common ocurrence. The real credit of an invention lies not so much 
 in the conception of its essential idea, as in the patient ingenuity which works out 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL E N C YC LO F.£ D I A. 365 
 
 its effective embodiment. To this Dr. Gatling is undoubtedh' entitled. The first 
 of his guns was tested in the spiing of 1862 at Indianapolis, and gave promise of 
 the marvellous efficiency this unique arm has since attained. It then discharged 
 over two hundred shots per minute. As improved, it now delivers upward of one 
 thousand shots per rnjnute. In the autumn of the same year he had a battery of 
 six guns manufactured at Cincinnati, but lo.st them in the conflagration of the fac- 
 tory. The blow was serious, entailing, as it did, comparative exhaustion of his pecu- 
 niary resources. Friends in Indianapolis opportunely came to his relief, and enabled 
 him to resume his undertaking. Twelve guns were soon afterward made in Cin- 
 cinnati, and were used in the repulse of attacks upon the Union forces on the 
 James River, near Richmond. " This was the only instance of their employment 
 during the late war" for the preservation of the Union. In 1865 he still further 
 improved these guns, and in 1866 had them made at the works of the Cooper's 
 Fire-arms Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia. Repeated and thorough official test- 
 trials of them were made by the United States authorities at the Frankfort Arsenal 
 and also at Washington and Fortress Monroe, in 1866; and in August of that 
 year they were introduced into the national service. Fifty of one inch, and fifty 
 of half an inch calibre were ordered by the Government. These were manufac- 
 tured at Colt's Armory, Hartford, Conn., and were delivered in 1867. 
 
 Russia, Turkey, Italy, Austria, Egypt, England, China, Japan, and some of the 
 South American States, have also adopted the Gatling gun. Napoleon III. ex- 
 amined it in 1863, when it suggested the Montigny mitrailleuse, to which it has 
 since proven so superior in severe competitive trials that it will doubtless be accepted 
 by the Government of France. During the recent Turco-Russian war, the Turks 
 effectively checked the advance of the Russians through the Shipka Pass, on the 226. 
 of August, 1877, bv means of the old style Gatling guns. The loss of the assaulting 
 party was severe, while the defenders were wholly untouched. In January, 1874, the 
 Gatling gun was used by Captain Rait, of the British artillery, to impress the minds of 
 the Ashantee ambassadors with proper ideas of the exterminating power of the civil- 
 ized invaders. Henry M. Stanley, correspondent of the New York Herald, who was 
 present on that occasion, thus speaks of it in his Coomassie and Magdala, p. 128: 
 " A new drum, loaded with shot, was placed on the top of the gun, and the handle 
 being turned, the Gatling began to speak with starthng emphasis. That part of the 
 river at which it was directed began to shoot up tall columns of water and spray, 
 until it appeared as if the Prah was about to form itself into so many gray columns 
 of liquid, and to join in a dance. The contents of the drum were expended without 
 a halt, and the effect of the exhibition was hailed with boisterous applause by the 
 Fantee spectators, and by the Ashantees with low remarks and expressive looks 
 
366 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO P.E D I A . 
 
 toward one another. The officers were also well pleased with the effect, and the 
 Gatling, which had its previous reputation endangered, had redeemed its fame and 
 become more highly appreciated than ever." 
 
 In 1879, during the Zulu war, its improved efficiency was signally demonstrated. 
 The blind, reckless valor of the superb Zulu savages availed nothing against the 
 annihilating Catlings in the hands of the British naval contingent. "They found 
 the fire much too hot," remarked the Army and Navy Gazette {London, February 
 22d, 1879), which added: "If there had been a couple of Gathngs with the force 
 annihilated the other day [at Isandula] the result of the fight might have been 
 different, for Gatlings are the best of all engines of war to deal with the rush of 
 a dense crowd." More of these remarkable weapons were sent out. One of them, 
 in store at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, fired — so the London Daily Telegraph 
 of February 22d, 1879, reported — " upward of' five hundred bullets in the space of 
 a single minute." It added : " The bullets are propelled from rifled barrels as 
 accurately as from infantry small arms, and as the gun can be traversed from 
 right to left at will, or elevated to any practicable range during the operation of 
 firing, a continuous stream of ounce balls can be poured upon the spots where the 
 enemy is thickest, swept along a line of troops, or scattered over the field like a 
 jet of water from a fire hose." 
 
 " Capable of throwing many scores of large bullets every minute upon a widely 
 spread area at a long distance, and keeping up the deadly discharge for any length 
 of time, it is admirably adapted for bush fighting, being just the species of weapon 
 which will make long grass an extremely precarious hiding-place, and deal out tre- 
 mendous destruction to hordes of savages. Very light and strong, it will be able 
 to go where heavy artillery cannot be taken, while its effect upon an enemy un- 
 provided with guns will be simply appalling." Ibid., February 19th, 1879. 
 
 Startling as it may seem, this dreadful instrument of destruction is really a 
 peace-maker. Like the gunpowder, without which it would be merely an ingenious 
 toy, it must diminish the barbarity and actual carnage of battle. No engagements 
 have been so wasteful of human life as those which were fought with the dagger 
 of the Greeks and the short sword of the Romans. Its relentless certainty of 
 execution forbids the blind rage of excited passion. The mere menace of its pres- 
 ence overawes a turbulent street crowd. It compels forethought and sternly confronts 
 precipitate action. Nations will deliberate long before sending the flower of their 
 manhood to be mown down by its resistless hail. It cannot but assist in keeping 
 the peace of Christendom ; nor can its inventor be classed in any other category 
 than that of the benefactors of mankind. 
 
 Gatling guns are now manufactured by the Colt's Patent Fire-arms Manufactur- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 367 
 
 ing Company, at Hartford, and by Sir William G. Armstrong & Co., at Newcastle- 
 on-Tyne, England. Colt's establishment is the largest and completest armory in the 
 world. The revolving barrel principle introduced by Col. Samuel Colt, and receiving 
 its full development in the Gatling gun, has revolutionized the construction of mod- 
 ern fire-arms. 
 
 A full and completely intelligible description of the Gatling gun is almost 
 impossible without the accompaniment of illustrations, such as those which adorn the 
 article on "The Modern Vulcan" in the May number (1879) of Potter's American 
 Monthly, from which the greater part of the material used in this article has been 
 drawn. " The Gatling gun, shown on its carriage in the diagrams, consists of a 
 number of very simple breech-loading rifled barrels grouped around and revolving 
 about a shaft to which they are parallel. These barrels are loaded and fired while 
 revolving, the empty cartridge-shells being ejected in continuous succession. Each 
 barrel is fired only once in a revolution, but as many shots are delivered during that 
 time as there are barrels, so that the ten-barrel Gatling gun fires ten times in one 
 revolution of the group of barrels. The action of each part is therefore deliberate, 
 while collectively the discharges are frequent. The working of the gun is simple, 
 One man places one end of a feed-case full of cartridges into a hopper at the top 
 of the gun, while another man turns a crank by which the gun is revolved. As 
 soon as the supply of cartridges in one feed-case is exhausted, another case may be 
 substituted without interrupting the revolution or the succession of discharges. The 
 usual number of the barrels composing the gun is ten." 
 
 " Several important improvements have recently been made in its construction. 
 The latest model is a five-barrel gun in which the improvements are as follows : 
 The crank handle is attached to the rear instead of the side, thereby increasing 
 the speed of revolution of the gun and the rapidity of its fire ; the drum is abolished, 
 and a new pattern feed-case substituted for it ; it stands vertically, and thus insures 
 a direct fall into the receivers; all the working parts, as well as the barrels, are 
 encased in bronze, to afford protection from rust and dirt ; the arrangement of the 
 locks has been much simplified, and the size of the whole breech arrangement 
 reduced by about one half; the rapidity of fire has been more than doubled ; the traver- 
 sing arrangement has been improved. This gun has been fired at the rate of one 
 thousand rounds a minute, but the ordinary rate of rapid firing is about seven 
 hundred rounds per minute. Fired deliberately at a target nineteen feet long by 
 eleven feet high, range one thousand yards, it scored six hundred and sixty-five 
 hits out of one thousand shots. Ten-barrelled guns are also made with these 
 improvements. These improved guns are light, have great rapidity of fire, and are 
 easily operated by inexperienced persons. They have more than doubled the effec- 
 
368 BIOGRAPHICAL E N C Y C LO FJED I A . 
 
 tiveness of the older style Gatlings." Ammunition wagons, specially constructed for 
 the purpose, accompany the guns. 
 
 Where Gatling guns are used hy expeditions in which it is impossible to use 
 wheeled vehicles, they are carried on mules, horses, or camels. Such guns are 
 called " camel guns," and are lighter and shorter than the field gun ; but fire the 
 musket cartridge, and have the musket-range. " Each gun, with its carriage or tri- 
 pod, is carried on pack-saddles, and fifteen or twenty loaded feed-cases can be car- 
 ried on the same saddles." 
 
 "In 1874 a board of United States Army Engineers conceded the following 
 claims for the Gathng gun : Its peculiar power for the defence of intrenched posi- 
 tions and villages, roads, defiles, bridges ; for covering the embarkation and debark- 
 ation of troops, or crossing streams ; for silencing batteries ; for increasing the in- 
 fantry fire at the critical moment of a battle ; for supporting field batteries, and 
 protecting them against cavalry or infantry charges ; for covering the retreat of a 
 repulsed column ; for the accuracy, continuity, and intensity of its fire, and for its 
 economy in men for serving, and animals for transporting it." In March of the 
 same year it was adopted as an auxiliary arm for all branches of the United States 
 service, as it had been previously adopted, in 1866, as a field arm. "In 1872 the 
 United States Navy adopted it for shore service, and in 1875 foi" use in ships' tops 
 and on launches ; and in the same year the United States War Department adopted 
 a model adapted for use with the cavalry — the short camel gun." 
 
 " Experiments have proved the deadly eflFect of the fire of the smaller Gatlinp- at 
 ranges up to 1400 yards, while the larger and medium guns gave satisfactory results 
 up to 2070 yards. A range of 1400 yards approximates the efficient range of the 
 best modern field artillery, and a Gatling battery, well managed, could prevent a field 
 battery from firing a shot if both arms attempted to get into position at the same 
 time at 1200 to 1400 yards from each other." Six guns would pour a continuous 
 stream of 3000 musket balls per minute into a hostile battery. No human nervous- 
 ness disturbs the deadly aim of the Gatling. It has no recoil. The wide sweep of 
 its discharges, and the hail of balls which pours out of its many throats, make it the 
 deadliest and most destructive engine of warfare ever fabricated by human ingenuity. 
 The Gatling gun is a far more terrible and potent weapon than the livid bolt of the 
 Grecian Zeus. It replaces spear and sword and arrow, as the spinning jenny of Ark- 
 wright replaces the distaff of Penelope. It has procured access for its inventor to the 
 palaces of the proudest monarchs, has enrolled great empires among the number of 
 his clients, and has given him place and power among the leaders of modern civili- 
 zation. 
 
 Dr. Gatling was married in 1854 to the youngest daughter of Dr. John H. Saun- 
 ders, of Indianapolis. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 369 
 
 [NGLISH, JAMES E., of New Haven, Ex-Governor of Connecticut. Born at 
 New Haven. His father, James English, was a prosperous business man in 
 the same city, and raised a family of six sons and three daughters to years of 
 maturity. His mother was Nancy Griswold, of New Haven. 
 
 His grandfather, Captain Benjamin Enghsh, was a shipmaster, and commanded, at 
 different times, several vessels trading between New Haven and foreign ports. 
 He also received an appointment under the administration of President Jefferson, 
 in the custom-house of his native town, and held it to the time of his death in 
 1807. The great-grandfather of Governor English was killed by the British troops, 
 under General Tryon, during the invasion of Connecticut in July, 1779. His earli- 
 est American ancestor not known to history was Clement English, of Salem, Mass. 
 Benjamin English, his son, removed from Salem, Massachusetts, to New Haven in 
 1702. Most of the members of the family have more or less clearly conceived the 
 idea that true civil government is " of the people, by the people, and for the peo- 
 ple ;" and since the organization of the nation, under the Federal Constitution, have 
 been identified with the Democratic party. 
 
 In early youth, James E. English attended the common schools, and even then 
 exhibited unusual self-reliance and independence in action — characteristics that have 
 waxed more conspicuous with the advance of years. Behind this marked individuality 
 has been the unvarying habit of observing and studying affairs in all their elements, 
 relations, and probabilities; and out of meditative moods has issued intelligent, de- 
 cided, and persistent volition. In childhood he determined to carve his own way 
 through life, and with the reluctant consent of his father engaged to labor on a farm 
 about thirty miles distant from home. In his new occupation he gave proof of dili- 
 gent efficiency for two years, and then returned to his parents. For the two years next 
 ensuing he attended school, and bestowed special attention upon architectural drawing, 
 in which he soon became an expert. Then, selecting the vocation of carpenter, he was 
 apprenticed to a master-mechanic. While yet devoted to preparatory thought and 
 application, he drew plans for several prominent buildings in New Haven, of which 
 several were embodied in structures that now adorn that beautiful city. 
 
 In 1833 he attained his majority, began business as a master-builder and con- 
 tractor, and continued therein with great success for the space of two years. Next, 
 he embarked in the lumber trade, in which a wealthy friend who thoroughly under- 
 stood his capacity for affairs, and justly valued his energy and uprightness, offered to 
 join him as partner. This offer was the more flattering, in view of the further pro- 
 posal to accept the industry and knowledge of the young merchant as equivalent to 
 the large sum the proponent desired to invest. It was courteously declined, for the 
 reason that Mr. English preferred to control his mercantile ventures alone. For more 
 24 
 
370 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 than twenty years, during which he carried on the lumber trade, both at Albany and 
 New Haven, the results justified his decision. He acquired the ownership of several 
 vessels, and conducted an extensive freighting business between New Haven, Albany, 
 and Philadelphia. 
 
 Ampler and more varied fields of exertion were then entered. The immense 
 development of the manufacturing interests of Connecticut is largely due to his com- 
 prehensive plans and tireless zeal. The Seventh Census of the United States reports 
 3737 manufacturing establishments, 50,731 hands employed, $25,876,648 of capital 
 invested, $12,435,984 paid in wages, and products valued at $47,114,585 in the State. 
 The Ninth Census reports 5128 manufacturing establishments, 89,523 hands employed, 
 $95,281,278 of capital invested, $38,987,187 paid in wages, and products valued at 
 $161,065,474. In several large establishments of the number now operative, Governor 
 English is immediately interested. To these he has given much time and attention. 
 The most important of them, perhaps, is the New Haven Clock Company, to whose 
 affairs he has given much of his time and attention. It owns the largest factory 
 of the kind in existence ; and of the ten timepiece concerns in Connecticut, employ- 
 ing hundreds of hands, a total capital of $759,000, paying $736,290 annually in wages, 
 and turning out a united product valued at $2,245,043 in 1870, this institution is 
 the principal constituent. To foster its interests, and to open up lucrative markets 
 for its wares, he has visited Europe on three several occasions, remaining abroad on 
 his last visit for nearly a year, and completing the tour of Europe. The Goodyear 
 Metallic Rubber Shoe Company is another corporation of which he is the president, 
 and which has risen to first-class rank among kindred competitors. In other exten- 
 sive and ably conducted companies, successfully prosecuting their selected industries, 
 he is a director. 
 
 The beneficence of projective genius, manufacturing skill, and wise administration 
 are not only apparent in the enormous growth of mechanic arts, but in the stimulus 
 imparted to agriculture, horticulture, and trade of all descriptions both at home and 
 in distant States. The artisan and the cultivator complement each other in building 
 up the wealth and power of communities. None understand this better than the 
 progressive men of American birth and training. Sagacity, insight, and wisdom are 
 shared by Governor English in common with them. Speculation he has invariably 
 eschewed. His judgment is rarely at fault, and his counsel is accepted with ready 
 confidence by business associates. Measured by any mundane standard such a career 
 is an unquestionable triumph. It has led to fortune, quietly and honorably enjoyed ; 
 to an elegant hospitality, liberally extended ; to an effective philanthropy, manifest 
 in generous donations to worthy claimants, in timely aid to deserving aspirants to 
 mercantile honors' or manufacturing success, and in statesman-Hke exertion for 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 371 
 
 popular education. To him must be chiefly ascribed the credit of that noble system 
 of education which throws open the doors of the pubhc schools to every child in 
 the State, and that without distinction of person, or charge for tuidon. The offspring 
 of the indigent and of the opulent alike have free access to these excellent insritu- 
 rions on equal terms. For his successful eff"orts in this behalf he has been styled 
 "the father of the free school system" throughout the commonwealth. The benefit 
 accruing to the latter can scarcely be overestimated. "Connecticut," says Eugene 
 Lawrence, " attributes its inventive genius to the public schools established by the 
 ' fathers.' " Manufactures and arristic progress, social wealth and state influence have 
 received still further impetus from the adoption of a compulsory law, enforcing 
 attendance at school. Both capitalists and operarives have discovered that " the public 
 school is the sure path to good morals and order among those who labor," and 
 cordially unite with Governor English in encouraging education and pressing on the 
 improvement of all the instruments of pubhc teaching. His wise and benevolent 
 activities have also ascended a higher plane to which he has been appointed as 
 one of the councillors of the Sheffield Scientific School, associated with Yale 
 College. 
 
 One of the salient features of modern history is the fact that practical, rather 
 than theoretical, culture is in demand in all legislative assemblies. The experience 
 in whose light leading men have learned to correct the errors of the past, and to 
 modify plans for the future, by the recorded experience of others, and by authen- 
 tic knowledge of national and international wants and resources, constitutes one of 
 the best qualifications for judicious legislation. By whomsoever possessed, this 
 practical culture is certain to be sought out, and thrust into prominence, under 
 the workings of free institutions. For thirty years Governor English has been in 
 one public position or other, but never through self-seeking, and often against incli- 
 nation, and even vigorous remonstrance. In the municipal bodies of his native 
 city and town he held membership for many years. Both branches of the State 
 Legislature have received his services ; the Senate, to which he was elected for 
 several consecutive terms, particularly. In 1861, and again in 1863, he was chosen 
 a representative to the lower branch of the National Legislature, and rendered 
 excellent service during the four years of the great rebellion. In the 37th Con- 
 gress he acted as member of the Committee on Naval Affairs with such ability 
 and acceptance that when, at the beginning of the 38th Congress, Mr. 'Colfax, 
 prior to his election as Speaker — proposed to substitute Mr. Bradagee, a Republican 
 from the New London district, in the new organizarion of the Naval Committee, 
 Secretary Welles personally and urgently pleaded for the retention of Mr. English, 
 on the ground that his aid was so extremely important. In the 38th Congress 
 
372 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 
 
 he acted as member of the Committee on PubHc Lands. Truly Democratic in 
 principle, and from conviction, he gave zealous support to the war measures of the 
 administration, and voted for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, 
 and also for the National Emancipation Act. To the Legal Tender Bill and to 
 the National Bank system he offered conscientious opposition, detecting the per- 
 nicious elements concealed in both measures, and foreseeing their deleterious influ- 
 ence upon the industrial and commercial interests of the country. In reference to 
 domestic manufactures he has always ■ antagonized "protection for the sake of pro- 
 tection," and has advocated all sensible measures of revenue reform. Individual 
 interests, he insists, must be subordinated to the general good. 
 
 In 1867 he was elected Governor, in 1868 reelected, and in 1870 elected a 
 third time. This repeated success was due in some measure to personal popularity, 
 but still more to general confidence in his disciphned abilities and approved pa- 
 triotism. The right of each State to manage its domestic concerns in its own 
 way, with due regard to every constitutional obligation, has found in him a dex- 
 terous and invincible champion, with whom no assailant has been willing to meas- 
 ure swords. In the Democratic National Convention of 1868 his name was 
 brought forward as a fitting candidate for the Presidency. The party choice fell 
 on another, in whose behalf he accepted the nomination of Presidential elector at 
 large, on the State ticket, in the campaign of that year. 
 
 Gifted with rare intuitive power, with the faculty of accurate observation, and 
 with extraordinary facility of generalization. Governor English is a forcible and 
 conclusive reasoner, a fluent and precise writer, an admirable and upright executive 
 officer, a sage counsellor, and an experienced statesman. Troops of friends, attached 
 by stronger ties than hooks of steel, hold him in high esteem, and gladly recipro- 
 cate a friendliness as wai'm as it is sincere and persistent. 
 
 Governor English was married to Miss Caroline A., daughter of Timothy Fowler, 
 of New Haven, January 25th, 1837. She died October 20th, 1874. The issue are 
 four children. One son survives, Henry P., born June 5th, 1850. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ames, Samuel 46 
 
 Anthony, Henry B 114 
 
 Averill, Roger 241 
 
 Bacon, Francis 191 
 
 Bacon, Leonard 360 
 
 Beach, John S 359 
 
 Beardsley, Sidney Burr 66 
 
 Bigelow, Hobart Baldwin 103 
 
 Blackstone, Lorenzo 328 
 
 Brewster, Lyman Denison 187 
 
 Bradley, Charles Smith 31 
 
 Buckingham, William A 81 
 
 Burges, Walter Snow 70 
 
 Burnside, Ambrose Everett 1 08 
 
 Burr, Alfred E 249 
 
 Burrill, James, Jr 165 
 
 Butler, John S 310 
 
 Camp, Hiram 322 
 
 Carpenter, Elisha 62 
 
 Caswell, Alexis 23 
 
 Coe, Lyman W 333 
 
 Daggett, David 40 
 
374 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Daggett, David Lewis 152 
 
 Doolittle, Tilton Edwin 330 
 
 Douglas, Benjamin 341 
 
 Durfee, Thomas 43 
 
 Edwards, Pierrepont 1 24 
 
 Ely, J. W. C , 335 
 
 English, James E 369 
 
 Ferry, Orris Sanford 277 
 
 Fisk, Wilbur 153 
 
 Foote, Andrew Hull 293 
 
 Foster, La Fayette S 1 46 
 
 Gallup, David 314 
 
 Gatling, Richard Jordan 362 
 
 Gilbert, William L 184 
 
 Granger, Miles T 60 
 
 Harrison, Henry Baldwin 201 
 
 Haven, Henry Philemon 258 
 
 Hawley, George Benjamin 255 
 
 Hawley, Joseph R 92 
 
 Holley, Alexander Hamilton 99 
 
 Hoppin, William Warner 108 
 
 Hovey, James A 68 
 
 Howard, Chauncey 308 
 
 Howe, Elias, Jr 203 
 
 Hoyt, Oliver 34^ 
 
 Hubbard, Richard Dudley 78 
 
 Ingersoll, Charles Roberts 105 
 
 Ingersoll, Ralph Isaac igg 
 
 Ives. Eli 355 
 
 Ives, Levi 332 
 
 Jenckes, Thomas Allen 210 
 
 Jewell, Marshall 86 
 
 Kingsbury, Frederick John 2 
 
 39 
 
TNDEX. 375 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Kingsley, James Luce 138 
 
 Knight, Henry Marter 271 
 
 Lewis, Henry G 218 
 
 Lippitt, Henry 115 
 
 Littlefield, Alfred Henry 121 
 
 Loomis, Dwight 61 
 
 Loomis, Francis B 192 
 
 Lyon, Nathaniel 318 
 
 Matteson, Charles 73 
 
 Miles, Frederick 310 
 
 Minor, William Thomas 74 
 
 Nichols, David Philip 268 
 
 Nye, Elisha Bowne 348 
 
 Park, John Duane 52 
 
 Parson, Usher 227 
 
 Piatt, Gideon Lucian 316 
 
 Porter, Noah 19 
 
 Potter, Elisha R 69 
 
 Pynchon, Thomas Ruggles 245 
 
 Robinson, Henry C 338 
 
 Russell, Gurdon Wadsworth 270 
 
 Sanford, Edward Isaac 65 
 
 Sanford, Leonard J 244 
 
 Sedgwick, John 140 
 
 Shew, Abram Marvin 233 
 
 Shipman, Nathaniel 64 
 
 Smith, Hezekiah 37 
 
 Sperry, N. D 134 
 
 Sprague, William 114 
 
 Stearns, Henry Putnam 157 
 
 Stiness, John H 72 
 
 Talcott, Charles D 273 
 
 Treat, Amos Sherman 177 
 
376 • ryoEX 
 
 TAGE 
 
 Van Zandt, Charles Collins 1 18 
 
 Watrous, George H 357 
 
 Wayland, Francis 9 
 
 Welles, Gideon 282 
 
 Whitney, Eli 167 
 
 Williams, Thomas Scott 53 
 
 Winchester, OHver F 144 
 
 Wilcox, Lucian S 327 
 
 Woolsey, Theodore Dwight 5 
 
 Wright, Dexter Eussell 206 
 
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